Home > Spurn

Spurn, a designated Heritage Coast, is a nature reserve, owned since 1960 by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and covering 113 hectares (1.13 km²) above high water and 181 hectares (1.81 km²) of foreshore.

The mud flats are an important feeding ground for wading birds, and the area has a bird observatory, for monitoring migrating birds. Their migration is assisted by east winds in autumn, resulting in drift migration of Scandinavian migrants, sometimes leading to a spectacular "fall" of thousands of birds. Many uncommon species have been sighted there, including once a Black-browed Albatross. More commonly, birds such as Wheatears, WhinchatWhinchat : Animalia : Chordata : Aves : Passeriformes : Muscicapidae : Saxicola rubetra Binomial name ''Saxicola rubetra Linnaeus, 1758) The Whinchat Saxicola rubetra is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turs, Common RedstartThe Redstart or Common Redstart Phoenicurus phoenicurus is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the Thrush family (Turdidae), but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher (Muscicapidae). It is a summer visis and flycatchermany:see text The Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae is a large family of small passerine birds restricted to the Old World. These are mainly small arboreal insectivores, many of which, as the name implies, take their prey on the wing. This articles alight at Spurn on their way between breeding and wintering grounds elsewhere.

The peninsula is made up from sand and shingle eroded from the HoldernessHolderness is an area of England on the coast of Yorkshire. It falls within the administrative area of the East Riding of Yorkshire, having from 1974 to 1996 been the borough of Holderness in Humberside. To the west is the Yorkshire Wolds. Its coastline h coastline washed down the coastline from Flamborough HeadFlamborough Head is a seven mile long promontory on the Yorkshire coast of England, between the Filey and Bridlington bays of the North Sea. It is a chalk headland, and the resistance it offers to coastal erosion may be contrasted with the low coast of Ho. Material is washed down the coast by longshore driftIn geography, longshore drift (LSD) refers to a process by which sediments move along a beach shoreline. The process arises when waves approach the shore obliquely (which in turn is determined by factors such as prevailing wind and fetch). Waves striking and accumulates to form the long, narrow embankment in the sheltered waters inside the mouth of the Humber estuary. It is maintained by plants, especially Marram grassSee text Marram grass is a genus of perennial grass, used to prevent or stop erosion of dunes. It is a pioneer species which acts as a sand-binder and dune-builder, with an extensive root system and a coarse, stiff structure. The roots contain rhizhomes w (Ammophila arenaria). Waves carry material along the peninsula to the tip, continually extending it; as this action stretches the peninsula it also narrows it to the extent that the sea can cut across it in severe weather. When the sea cuts across it permanently, everything beyond the breach is swept away, only to eventually reform as a new spit pointing further south. This cycle of destruction and reconstruction occurs approximately every 250 years.