Fields Of Red & Purple

June 5th Strumpshaw Fen

It was another moody Monday at Strumpshaw. It seems that every Monday when I'm at Strumpshaw it is either raining, windy, etc with very little to see. The first Monday of June 2023 appeared to be going the same way. It was overcast and chilly. It was just too cold for swallowtails. I did hear a grasshopper warbler and saw a family of great spotted woodpeckers, marsh harriers, swifts, a heron, cormorants, reed buntings, a brief glimpse of a bearded tit, swans with cygnets, but nothing out of the unusual or even an otter or bittern to break the dullness.

June 10th Strumpshaw Fen

Determined to see a swallowtail and to avoid what I expect would be yet another moody Monday, I decided to visit Strumpshaw on a Saturday in the hope of getting a photo of one of these seemingly elusive butterflies. As luck has it, it was a swelteringly hot sunny day. Perfect weather for one to show up. In the end though, I only caught a fleeting glimpse of one swooping by the toilet block without anyone else noticing.

Bumblebee on Caper Spurge (June 5th), Wasp Beetle &
Norfolk Hawker (June 10th), Scarce Chaser,
Bittern & Bee Orchid (June 12th)

I also missed the chance of seeing the cranes and their chick that had moved away from the reed beds and had since travelled all the way to Buckenham. [Update: A week after this visit, there was some sad news. The chick suddenly disappeared and was presumed dead. I was heartbroken when I heard about this.] However, I did get to see a wasp beetle in the nectar garden alongside ruby-tailed wasps. I haven't seen a wasp beetle here in some time, so I was very happy. Also seen were: Norfolk hawkers, red-eyed damselflies, banded demoiselles, 4-spot chasers, a female black-tailed skimmer, a wall brown butterfly, brimstones, holly blues, marsh harriers, tufted ducks, shovelers swallows and heard a cuckoo.

June 12th Strumpshaw Fen & Norwich

Another scorcher of a day, no moody Monday this time. It was also a fairly good one. While walking to the reserve, a barn owl flew in front of me and there were 2-3 hares on the fields. Then, when I arrived, a bittern was sitting in the reeds at the back of the broad from Reception Hide sunning itself.

I then went for a walk through the woods, to pumphouse, along the river and back. I sat by the toe-dipping platform and caught a glimpse of a water vole swimming across the ditch! There were plenty of dragonflies too, including scarce chasers, Norfolk hawkers, black-tailed skimmers, 4-spot chasers, red-eyed damselflies and banded demoiselles. As I made my way back, a grasshopper warbler was reeling in a bush by the ramp along Sandy Wall showing really well, but vanished by the time I got my camera on to it.

The action did not stop during my shift at Reception Hide as I had many bittern sightings. I saw it at least 4-5 times, most of the time flying over, but a couple of times were poking out of the reeds. Other highlights included; a hobby, marsh harriers, a common tern, swallows, reed buntings, and even a swallowtail flying over the broad. The only disappointment was that these butterflies did not show up at the nectar garden for a photo.

Back in Norwich, I went to check out the Big Yellow Storage building opposite Carrow Road where they left their grassy verges to grow. These verges contained at least 26+ bee orchids from what I could count.

 

June 17th Hickling Broad

I still could not get a swallowtail to pose for me for a photo. So far, all I've been getting were fleeting glimpses. Swallowtails were eluding me! This time, I went with my parents to Hickling Broad, where I've been told that they were more frequent. After a long walk and plenty of searching, we were at the end of our loop around the reserve when we eventually found one on the final stretch back to the visitor centre on some brambles. It was flighty, but thankfully, it did settle for a couple of photos. Challenge complete.

During our search, there were other highlights including a tiger moth caterpillar crawling across the path, a great white egret flying over, a flock of bearded tits, marsh harriers, a great spotted woodpecker, a swallow on a nest in one of the hides, reed buntings, sedge, reed and Cetti's warblers, many dragonflies and a pheasant taking a dust bath and refusing to leave it as we had to walk by it.

Garden Tiger Moth Caterpillar, Dust Bathing Pheasant &
Swallowtail (June 17th), Poppy field (June 19th),
Grasshopper Warbler & Leech (June 26th)

After lunch, Dad and I walked down to Stubb's Mill, finding a sleepy spoonbill out on the pools as well as lapwings and little egrets and 3 cranes that were seen flying in the horizon from the raptor roost viewpoint platform. However, we couldn't linger here for too long as we had a boat to catch! We had booked a ride out on the broads, but that meant we had to walk from the mill at one end of the reserve to the jetty on the other side in 30 minutes!

A little shattered from the pace and the heat, we eventually boarded the boat and it took us out onto the open water of the broad, navigating around large groups of swans and through narrow passage ways of reed beds. We also saw marsh harriers, great crested grebes, coots, common terns and many black-tailed skimmers and Norfolk hawkers. We were then taken to Swim Coots Hide, accessible only by boat. From the hide, we could see 6 little egrets, 2 avocets, lapwings, a bearded tit and shelducks. On the way back, I spotted a hooded x carrion crow hybrid. 

June 19th Strumpshaw Fen & Hayden

I decided to enter Strumpshaw from the Lackford Run to seek out the marsh cinquefoil that was reported near the boardwalk recently. I couldn't find it, sadly, but there were several southern marsh orchids. 

After a boring, longwinded walk along the Lackford Run, I took a break inside Tower Hide. There were many mallards here plus common terns, marsh harriers and great crested grebes. The grasshopper warbler was still in his bush as last week and continued to photo shy of my camera. I also noticed common spotted orchids by the sand cliff area and a cuckoo was calling from somewhere near the river. Another action-packed day of bittern sightings awaited me at Reception Hide as well as a hobby, 2 sparrowhawks having an aerial scrap, emperor dragonflies and a Chinese water deer

A kind regular asked I wanted to go somewhere after my shift. I decided to accept his offer and went to seek out a field of poppies as part of my displays challenge. I was informed that there were two fields of them at the small village of Hayden. We were not disappointed. Two fields of red as promised! I didn't expect this part of my challenge to be as tricky to locate as it was. I had to ask around many times for anyone who had seen this kind of display. But I'm glad it eventually paid off. And I like to thank Trevor for taking me there.

June 26th Strumpshaw Fen

A fen raft spider had been located in the ditches of the meadow trail since my last shift at Strumpshaw. Back in 2012, many of these endangered spiders were released at a secret location near Cantley as part of a reintroduction project. Since then, they were slowly increasing in number and their range year by year. And now they have arrived at Strumpshaw for the first ever time. During this morning, I peered over the bridge in the meadow trail 3 separate times, but saw nothing. The best I could find was a large leech, which was fascinating to watch slither across the top of the aquatic vegetation in its self. 

The grasshopper warbler was yet again in his favourite bush and this time was more obliging to be photographed. At Reception Hide, a hobby was swooping over the broad a few times and I saw swifts, house martins, marsh harriers, reed buntings and had a very brief flash of a swallowtail. It was a bit windy this week, so it didn't really settle.

June 28th Cley

Another week off from work and another visit to Cley. Not the most memorable of visits, but there were at least 10+ spoonbills lounging around at Pat's Pool, several little egrets, redshanks, avocets, 3 common ringed plovers, sedge warblers, a whitethroat, a red kite and some sandwich terns flying over the sea.

Spoonbill (June 28th), Fulmar,
Lavender, Silver-Y Moth,
Some Kind of Bee & Leaf-cutter Bee (June 29th)

There was an American golden plover on the reserve, but you had to walk to the viewing point by the beach to see it. By the time I got there, however, it had vanished! Apparently, it had since moved to the central pools where I was earlier! Unfortunately, I couldn't go back to the hides there as Mum wanted to leave. Oh well!

June 29th Hunstanton & Heacham

It was a horrid start to my day out with Dad as it was raining. We decided to go to Hunstanton to escape the rain or at least we knew we'd have some shelter if necessary. Once we arrived there, though, the sun came out and it improved into a nice day.

We stopped at a café for a while which overlooked the sea and you could see fulmars soar and glide over from the cliffside. After our little café break, we went down to see them and they were everywhere along the cliff. I spotted at least 4 on a single small ridge alone! They were calling a lot but for some reason my app refused to pick it up besides the calls being loud enough. Along the shoreline, I was able to spot 2 sandwich terns and black and bar-tailed godwits and curlews.

Next up, we went to the place we came up to north Norfolk for. We wanted to see the lavender at Heacham. The fields were not accessible to the public right now, but the display by the café was in full bloom. This was enough for me to tick off from my challenge list. It was a fantastic area of purple and in various shades due to the showcase of lavender varieties (including a white one). The sweet perfumed scent of the lavender attracted many species of bees and other insects such as a silver-y moth, red admirals, meadow browns and a leaf-cutter bee. I also tasted a bit of lavender cake. It tasted like fancy soap. Yuck! Dad had the rest.