Swallowtails in Norfolk: Part 1
When Bob and I returned from Kent, having just seen the Heath Fritillary, we looked at the weather for the following week and we saw that it was looking very changeable every day, with cool windy and/or wet weather forecast. The Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio machaon) is our largest native species found in the UK and Bob informed me they won't be flying if the conditions aren't good. They like the warmth! Now was not a good time for our hot spell to be over! With only one more week of my break from teaching left, we had little choice but to arrange our visit for then, regardless of the weather. I booked some accommodation for us and we figured that if we went for more than a couple of days, we were bound to have at least one fairly decent opportunity to see the final species on my UK list that I'd not seen before.
DAY 1
As usual for us, we set off fairly early in the morning since we had over a three-hour drive ahead of us. The plan was to stop at Weeting Heath Nature Reserve, just inside the Norfolk border, so we could break up the drive and enjoy some time out in nature. The main purpose was to see the Stone Curlew that breed at this site (Burhinus oedicnemus). They're a rare summer visitor to the UK and I'd not heard of this species before. They're not in any way related to the Curlew (Numenius arquata), which I have seen before - though they are also quite rare and endangered. Their name relates to their similar call.
We sat in two different hides during the course of the late morning and early afternoon and for quite some time we didn't think we were going to get lucky and see the Stone Curlew - though we did see a couple of Curlews. At one point I nipped back to the car, and of course that was when Bob saw one! It was on the far side of the field we were overlooking, but where the ground dipped lower out of sight. He saw it just as I was returning to the hide. So, I quickly sat down and looked for it, but I didn't get a chance to properly see it. We decided to stay a bit longer, and so this time Bob left the hide to fetch our lunch, and that was when the Stone Curlew reappeared. It even flew a short distance, quite low, as it apparently had a nest nearby and it wasn't happy about the Rooks that were too close for comfort.
Don't hold your breath - the photo is pants! The bird was so far away and it was more of a record shot. However, I did enjoy watching it through my binoculars.
After watching the Stone Curlew for a while, we decided to go for a short walk in the nature reserve. It was good to stretch our legs and we enjoyed seeing a few interesting things, like a couple of Hares, seven different species of butterly, a Coal Tit clearly on its way to feed some young somewhere (photo) and a Woodlark calling and flying up above the heath fairly close to us. When we were back in the car and about to pull onto the road, a Yellow Shell Moth suddenly flew in through the open window and rested on the back of the seat. Not wanting to relocate it to somewhere miles away, Bob was able to carefully catch it in his hands and release it back outside.
We reached our accommodation in Freethorpe - a lovely garden loft conversion - and unloaded the car. Since it wasn't too late in the evening and it was fairly warm and sunny, we decided to make the most of the favourable weather and do a reccie at RSPB Strumpshaw Fen. It's known to be a reliable site for seeing the Swallowtail and we'd planned a full day there the next day. The nature reserve was only 10 minutes from where we were staying, which was perfect for us. In next to no time, we were walking down the lane alongside the reserve to the area where Bob had seen some Swallowtails in previous years. Unfortunately, we didn't spot any, but we did see a few dragonflies and a couple of caterpillars.
You can probably guess which one of the photos is the 'Woolly Bear' (Garden Tiger Moth). It's long whitish hairs were amazing. I don't think I've seen a caterpillar quite so hairy before!
The other caterpillar is the Orange-tip. You can see this one has already had a good munch out of the side of the leaf.
From the lane, we were able to access the nature reserve close to the boardwalk, which is another good area you can see the Swallowtails. Again, we had no joy. But, nearby we did see some recently fledged Sedge Warblers in the reeds, which was a lovely extra treat. We would've carried on walking further into the reserve along the path, but a male Swan had other ideas. The female had a brood of signets semi-hiding underneath her and I know the males can become very aggressive. At first, its wings just slightly raised up from its body. Then it turned to face us and started to walk towards us and within seconds it was moving more quickly, chasing us away with its wings almost fully up. It was very intimidating! As you can imagine we were already retreating by this point. It would've made for a great photo, but funnily enough I had other things on my mind - like safely moving away!
We headed back to the visitor centre and to a deck that overlooks an open area of water surrounded by reedbeds. For a while we perused the scene before us, but didn't see anything of note. Behind us, near the entrance, a woman was crouching down low photographing something in a small circular garden section. I was curious and wondered if there was a Swallowtail there, but she had a fancy set up and was spending a long time photographing something, so I left her to it, not really wanting to invade her space and her find. However, after a while, when another couple turned up, it soon became apparent that was exactly what she was photographing.
Bob and I walked over. I stood to one side of the woman, happy that I was seeing my first Swallowtail, but keeping it very much to myself. Eventually, she stepped back and the few of us there tried to take a few photos, but it was a bit flighty and moving around quite a bit, nectaring on the purple Dame's-violet, so it wasn't easy. This is one of my favourite shots. I love the orange-red spots at the base of the hindwings and the lovely dusting of blue. It really is a beautiful butterfly.
I was pleased to get an underwing view of it too. It was a challenge capturing images that didn't have wooden posts and rope in the background. We only had about five minutes with it. Then, before we knew it, the beautiful butterfly flew up and headed over to the reedbeds. I went back to the deck and saw where it went down. It was quite low, but still visible. That would be it for the evening. It was six o'clock and it would most likely crawl down lower for the night.
Bob came over to where I was standing and asked if I felt a bit flat. I did. I didn't feel the elation I thought I would upon seeing my first Swallowtail. There was no thrill in seeing it. I was struggling to feel the joy in the moment, even though I did pause and try and appreciate it. The problem was, there'd been no challenge in trying to find it - I prefer it when we can find things for ourselves - plus, it wasn't exactly in a natural setting. To be honest, it felt like an anticlimax! I didn't think I had any decent photos either. But, the pressure was at least off. At that point though, I didn't feel any sense of wanting to celebrate the acheivement of seeing all the UK species of butterfly.
DAY 2
We returned to the garden by the visitor centre the following morning before opening time. We started chatting to another couple for a while who were also hoping to see the Swallowtail, whilst standing around the small circular garden plot. Time went by and there was no sign of the Swallowtail coming back there. I'd already checked out the reedbeds where I'd seen it go down the night before, but there was no sign of it there either. Only a little while later did I walk over towards some tall wildflowers to one side near a small pond (more of the Dame's-violet). We made a joke - wouldn't it be funny if there was a Swallowtail over there all this time, whilst we'd been chatting. Guess what? There was, and I found it! That at least felt a bit better and I enjoyed taking some more photos.
It took me a while before I realised that it wasn't quite so perfect, as there was a small area of damage to the hindwing, by the red spots. This wasn't the same one we'd seen the night before.
But, as luck would have it, a second one turned up to nectar on the flowers and this was very likely the one we'd seen the previous night.
I love this side on view of the butterfly as you can appreciate the amazing yellow abdomen with it's black stripes, matching the pattern of the underwings a bit.
Because the butterfly is so large, it's actually quite difficult to get all of the wings in focus. I was really pleased with this next photo.
Naturally, these two beauties were creating quite a stir. More and more people turned up to the nature reserve and were keen to photograph them. Many people visit the Norfolk Broads in the spring specifically to see the Swallowtail butterfly. It's one of our rarist butterfly species in the UK - sub-species britannicus - and currently only found in the Norfolk Broads. The catepillar feeds on Milk Parsley, but the adults can be seen nectaring on flowers such as Thistles and Ragged-Robin. It is smaller and darker than the continental sub-species gorganus, which occasionally can be seen on the south coast of England.
After a while, the more pristine Swallowtail flew back towards the reedbed, perching in view. There was a little back and forth and as they were constantly moving about nectaring, it was still proving a little challenging to photograph them, or they would sit somewhere less visible. It was quite a full-on 30 minutes watching both of the butterflies, but in the end we were ready to move on. More people were congregating, so we decided to enjoy a walk around the nature reserve.
We went back down the lane first - still no yellow butterflies there - and up to the meadow that had once been a good spot. All we saw was a Muntjac Deer grazing. Whilst he briefly glanced up at us, it was the sound of a train hurtling down the track nearby that sent it running for cover.
We headed back to the boardwalk and we had a fabulous time there. For starters, I saw another Swallowtail fly low over the tops of the reedbed. It was brief, but wonderful to see. Bob gets excited about all sorts of insects, whereas I'm sometimes a bit more selective about what I photograph. But on this occasion, I was pretty impressed with the Golden Barred Grey Longhorn. It's very funky looking and I love the black and white antennae. We saw it a few times during our Norfolk trip.
As we started the boardwalk, we could hear this shrill high pitched squeak, which was clearly the call of a young bird somewhere. Eventually, we spotted a gorgeous tiny little Sedge Warbler chick in amongst the reeds. It kept itself quite well hidden, so I didn't get a great photo, but it was adorable. It was whilst I was looking at some other Sedge Warblers flying around later that I almost disturbed the Common Lizard (photo). It didn't stick around long.
We continued to see more caterpillars, including quite a few Drinker Moth cats.
Naturally, being so close to the water meant we saw a lot of dragonflies over the course of our trip. We were able to photograph the first one because it was resting. It was an immature female Scarce Chaser. She had a beautiful orange abdomen, but as she matures it will develop into an olive-brown colour. One of the distinguishing features that helps to identify this speces is the appearance of darker wingtips, which is much more obvious in this female than the male Scarce Chaser in the next photo. There's just a hint of a darker wingtip in his right forewing. This male hasn't mated yet as there are no marks on its abdomen.
Thankfully, this time the male Swan was not on guard and we were able to pass along the footpath with ease. The family were out on the water and it was wonderful to see the little ones riding on the backs of their parents. There were lots of blades of grass in the way of a clear shot, so I've done a bit of 'spring cleaning' to create the second image with the four signets getting a free ride. They were simply gorgeous!
We spent some time sitting in the hides in the afternoon, so we weren't walking around all day. It was lovely to spend some time just relaxing and watching the wildlife around us. We stopped at the Fen Hide first and of course there were Mallards swimming around with cute ducklings in tow.
A handful of Northern Lapwings were seen skirting the water's edge in the muddier areas. Occasionally they would fly around, swiftly changing direction every now and then, and calling with their unique squeaky sounding 'pee-wit'. I even spotted a few of their chicks on the far side of the pool.
One time, a Lapwing mobbed a Little Egret. Clearly, it wasn't happy that the egret was close to its young.
There were Marsh Harriers flying over and some nice sightings of a Hobby sitting in a tree some distance away. At one point we even saw two. Sometimes it flew a litlte closer and it was fabulous to see. This is a bird of prey I've usually only ever had fleeting glimpses of, so I was really happy to watch it for a while.
There were Bearded Tits in the reeds nearest to the hide. Bob could hear them better than I could. There was a flash of movement sometimes when they'd fly from one section to the next, but they were impossible to photograph. Likewise, the beautiful familiar flash of blue past us too quickly, when a Kingfisher was on the move a couple of times. Then later, a Common Tern made an appearance.
We often heard the call of the Reed Warbler, but this obliging one actually made an appearance, rather than skulking around amongst the reeds all the time.
When we reached the bank of the River Yare we turned left to follow the footpath along that way for a while. We saw a handful of dragonflies and quite a few clusters of Peacock butterfly caterpillars that will be dominating that stretch of the reserve soon. But, in some ways, the stars of the day were the Small Tortoiseshells that were abundant all along the bank. I don't think I've ever seen so many. They were making good use of all the Bramble beside the river. Virtually ever few steps we made, more took to the wing.
We then headed in the opposite directon, heading towards the Tower Hide. However, we were side-tracked for a while. We spotted a female Blue-tailed Damselfly rufescens - with a lovely pink thorax. There are actually five different coloured forms in this species (female). Both sexes have the two-tone wingspots too, which you can just about see.
It was the Norfolk Hawker that stole our attention for some time. I love their striking green eyes. It was patrolling one of the channels of water and coming fairly close to us periodically. We decided to practice some flying shots and put our new cameras to the test. The newer technology makes it easier to track and keep focus on flying objects potentially, though birds are a great deal easier than dragonflies. I was really pleased with this photo. Funnily enough, Norfolk Hawkers aren't restricted just to Norfolk. A few weeks before Bob and I were photographing this same species in the forest near where we live. But, this was my first time seeing so many flying over the water.
When we'd had enough of that, we moved on to the hide. It was quite good to be higher up and have a good view over the nature reserve. All day I was hoping we'd see or hear a Bittern. It's a species I've really been keen to photograph for a few years. I've only ever seen it twice before - fleeting distance views - and on a third occasion heard. So, you can imagine how thrilled I was when I spotted one lurking amongst the reeds at the edge of the water. They're such a shy waterbird, hiding so much of the time, it really is just pot luck to be at the right place at the right time when one either takes flight or appears from the reedbed to fish. I think this one was only visible for less than a minute and still too far away really, but it was fabulous and I was really happy about it, almost as much as I was about seeing the Swallowtail.
By the end of this full day at Strumpshaw Fen, I was feeling much happier about our Swallowtail sightings. They were perhaps not as numerous at this site as I had imagined, but it was wonderful to have seen my target species so quickly and then to have had more sightings following it. It really is a very beautiful butterfly and I was grateful for the opportunity to see them.
To see how things unfolded on our remaining two days, read on...
