Searching In The Dark

 July 3rd Strumpshaw Fen & Buxton

A bit windy, but still an ok morning to kick off my first shift in July 2023. I was looking for the fen raft spiders at the meadow trail. There was sadly no sign, but I did hear the grasshopper warbler reeling while I was searching from the bridge albeit briefly. I then visited the woods where it was a lot more sheltered from the wind. It was like a mini oasis of warm sunlight, exactly what the butterflies visiting the brambles needed, that included a silver-washed fritillary.

A bittern was sunning itself in the reedbeds left of the broad outside the Reception Hide and an otter later made an appearance after a visitor was just asking about where to see one. It was busy hunting, causing the many mallards that couldn't fly due to moulting to swim around the broad. The otter was elusive to spot, but I was happy as I believe this is my first sighting in a while.

Snail-killing Fly (Sepedon sphegea), Silver-washed Fritillary,
Silver-studded Blue, Dodder,
Marsh Fragrant Orchid & Heath Spotted Orchid (July 3rd)

After my shift, I went home. However, I wasn't done yet. I was going on a hunt for a nightjar! As afternoon became evening, Tricia picked me up and we made our way to Buxton Heath. After meeting up with Tricia's friend, Christine, we had a little walk around the site before it got dark enough to wait for the nightjars to emerge. During our walk, we discovered that the heather was covered in many roosting silver-studded blue butterflies clinging on to the branches. Lots of them! It was a spectacle in itself.

We also found many orchids, including common spotted, heath spotted, marsh fragrant and marsh helleborines. The best find during our walk, though, was a patch of dodder. This is a parasitic plant that has no leaves, small white flowers and just looks like a mass of red strawberry laces or spaghetti covering the heather. The steam of the dodder taps into the heather and sucks the nutrients from its leaves until it looks brown and dead.

Eventually, the light faded and around 9:45pm, the nightjars emerged. There was enough light to see them and at least two of them were flying around us. A male (with white patches on the wings and tail) and a female (has no such markings at all). The male serenaded us with his eerie churring song accompanied with the occasional wing clap, which is part of his display. It was one of the best nightjar evenings I've ever experienced. That is until it suddenly started to rain! We were forced to leave to avoid a complete soaking. On the way out, we looked for glow-worms, but there was no sign.

July 8th Strumpshaw Fen

My search for a glow-worm has taken me to Strumpshaw. My parents have joined me in my search. It was Saturday and there was nothing on TV anyway. Besides, we arrived early before it was even dark as we had something else in mind to see first. News of long-eared owls showing well at Strumpshaw had attracted quite a crowd. These owls are high on the top of my wish list of birds that I've never seen before. So when I heard the news and seen the photos of one perched on the sign by the feeder area, I was incredibly jealous and wanted to see it myself.

As soon as we entered onto the reserve, there were already many people gathered by the picnic benches beside the nectar garden. I didn't need to say a word to ask if they had seen it or not as they immediately told me where it was at that moment. I went round the corner at the start of the trail and another crowd greeted me with two volunteers keeping an eye on them. The owl was currently sitting in a tree beside the fence. You had to apparently crouch down in order to see it, but I could not spot it at all. A couple of people then sneaked closer (too close in my opinion) to sit on a nearby log and I tried to join them, but the owl decided to fly off. That was all I saw of it! My first ever long-eared owl encounter was over in mere seconds. All I saw was a blur passing by me.

It was incredibly noisy at Strumpshaw as two raves were going on in the area. One sounded like it was coming from the river playing old school and modern party hits and the other was coming in the direction of Buckenham and was the loudest and was just a racket of unbearable noise! Amazingly, the grasshopper warbler's reeling somehow managed to break through their noise. When it was finally dark enough, we managed to spot two glow-worms, though they were hidden deep within the vegetation to get a good look at them. If it wasn't for their bright green glowing abdomens, I wouldn't have been able to spot them, though, saying that, we were surprised how much the stones along the Sandy Wall path glowed in the dim evening light and that often made us confused them for the real deal. I may not have gotten a photo (or made a video), but I can safely tick them off my list.

July 9th Cley & Morston

It was time to make my monthly visit to Cley. The long-billed dowitcher had returned to the reserve and was out on Pat's Pool along with several spoonbills and little egrets, 2 little ringed plovers, ruff (a few males in their colourful plumages), black-tailed godwits, oystercatchers, avocets, lapwings, shelducks and redshanks with chicks.

Long-billed Dowitcher, Spoonbill,
Six-banded Clearwing & Sea Lavender (July 9th),
Resin Bee (July 10th) & White Admiral (July 17th)

We then had lunch tucked behind the visitor centre, sneaking a picnic where we weren't suppose to (café use only in that spot). Then a NWT man appeared. We thought he was only going to kick us out, but he ended up showing us a rare moth, a six-belted clearwing feeding on the flowers behind our heads. Never heard of it before, but it was pretty interesting as it looked like a wasp.

After lunch, we made our way to Morston which was a place I was told that sea lavender was at its best. Sea lavender is a new addition to my displays and spectacles challenge list. To see the coastline covered in soft purple is the main reason I wanted to add it and I wasn't disappointed. It was a little different from the regular kind of lavender that I saw last month at Heacham as it was more clumpy and seemed to lack any scent. It grows in salt marshes too, so it thrives in the salt rich mud that would normally kill other lavender species. This landscape of purple was also alive with oystercatchers and other birds.

July 10th Strumpshaw Fen

I returned to Strumpshaw hoping to see 3 things. First was for the long-eared owl. I was once again not the only one doing so as another crowd of people were waiting around for it. That included one guy who had just arrived from Bristol after driving all night on his motorbike and had to drive all the way back the same day. However, there was no sign of it. Possibly a couple of claims, but it ended being unverified. 

Next, I looked for marsh helleborine in the meadow trail, but just like a year ago, there is no sign of one anywhere. Then, I peered over the bridge over the ditch for the fen raft spiders. Sadly, they were no where to be seen and I wonder if the claim that they were here was a mistaken identity. I, however, did find A spider, but not THE spider I was after. It was close though. It was like a fen raft in the fact it was moving on floating aquatic vegetation, but much rounder in appearance. It was a different species. It meant that I had failed to find any of the three I was hoping to see.

What I did see, however, was a great spotted woodpecker, marsh harriers and a colony of resin bees that were buzzing around the log in the nectar garden. Apparently, these tiny bees arrived in Norfolk in the early 2010's.

July 17th Strumpshaw Fen

It was a blustery day, but not a bad one, just not that interesting. The owl was now seemingly gone and so were the crowds and the hype. The meadow trail was fairly empty, but I could hear the grasshopper warbler nearby, though it never showed itself. I popped into Fen Hide and only saw marsh harriers and, on the way out, some bearded tits flew over me along the path outside and a brown hawker posed for me.

A quick visit to the bramble patch in the woods was next, where a small crowd were watching the butterflies. They were once again very active in this sheltered spot away from the wind and that included silver-washed fritillaries, white admirals, gatekeepers and ringlets. I then stopped by to the office before my shift. I opened the gate in the fence and I was startled when a hare (equally as startled) ran out from the trailers in the courtyard close to where I entered from.

At Reception Hide, three of our wardens were busy strimming the front of the hide. It got a bit noisy to say the least. So not much to see other than swallows, house martins, many mallards, a great crested grebe, mute swans with 5 large cygnets and, after the strimming work was done, a muntjac deer. Also seen were small red-eyed damselflies and an emperor dragonfly in the pond behind the feeder area and southern hawkers and commas in the wood.

Near the end of the shift, it started to rain out of nowhere. Not that hard though. Returning to Norwich, though, I had just made it back when a thunderstorm started chucking it down with torrential rain!

July 24th Strumpshaw Fen

The Moody Mondays seemed to have returned. It was a dull, grey, drizzly morning with more threatening showers here and there. I went to the boardwalk by the Lackford Run to study the milk parsley for swallowtail caterpillars. Unfortunately, it seems that they were sheltering deep within the damp vegetation as I could not find any. 

I had to then backtrack after a family of swans blocked my way further down the Lackford Run. So I ended up heading to Fen Hide with young marsh harriers, a heron, a stock dove and a brief bearded tit for company. The same were seen from Reception Hide along with a bittern, a great white egret, a common tern, swifts, many mallards and a pied wagtail. Besides that, it was a fairly quiet day all round.

July 29th Titchwell

Mum and I decided to visit Titchwell to check out what's about. There happened to be plenty out on the freshwater pool such as avocets, black-tailed godwits, common terns, redshanks, oystercatchers, a dunlin, shelducks and many gulls and ducks. The main highlights though were 10 spoonbills, a curlew sandpiper, a snipe and a bearded tit. We also saw a migrant hawker that landed and spooked a lizard that was behind it, a curlew, and a few sandwich terns flying over the sea. I may have glimpsed a stoat flash across the main path as well.

Brown Hawker & Muntjac Deer (July 17th),
Great White Egret (July 24th), Curlew Sandpiper (July 29th),
Garganey (July 31st), Sand Wasp (July 29th)
& Otter (July 31st)

July 31st Strumpshaw Fen

Yet another Moody Monday, but it wasn't that bad. It was raining on the way to the reserve, but it did ease off when I arrived. Fen Hide was a little uninteresting despite seeing marsh harriers and common terns, so I made the long walk to Tower Hide. There were a lot of ducks, mostly mallards and shovelers, but there was also an eclipse-phased garganey looking smaller than the other ducks, though the two little grebes were smaller. 

At Reception Hide, an otter made a short and sudden appearance, spooking the hundred or so mallards out on the broad. The family of swans and heron, however, didn't seem to be worried at all. Outside, there was a small gathering as they awaited a sponsored fundraiser to arrive. There was a man cycling to every RSPB reserve to raise money for statue of RSPB founder Emily Williamson to be built. Check out emilywilliamsonstatue.com for more information. When the fundraiser arrived, he brought out a small statuette of what the statue will look like before setting off again to his next destination, which I think was Titchwell.