July 2025 - trip to UK (day 4)
/The next day the weather seemed much brighter, albeit on and off, but the moth trap in the garden was quiet, not having any additional species from the day before. We decided to head back to Strumpshaw Fen for some more wetland action, especially because the warden told us about the Lesser Emperors which had been patrolling up and down the previous day. We walked down the lane at the back of the reserve first and into the north-western reedbed. There was a couple of targets here I wanted to see, and we found one of them along the boardwalk with a Swallowtail larva resting on a Milk Parsley stem. I had not seen Swallowtail in the UK, just migrant insects which have reached Guernsey. A pretty impressive and iconic caterpillar.
Swallowtail larva - Strumpshaw, 27 Jul 25
Close by to the Swallowtail larva there was a small clump of Yellow Loosestrife bending over the boardwalk, and atop of one of the flowers, was a small bee just sitting motionless. The clue was the flower, because this was a Yellow Loosestrife Bee Macropis europaea. This is a wetland species and is very strongly associated with this species of plant, because it needs to get access to a particular oil which it requires to nest in such wet habitats. It was so still we thought it might be dead, but it was just sleeping.
Yellow Loosestrife Bee - Strumpshaw, 27 Jul 25
Yellow Loosestrife Bee - Strumpshaw, 27 Jul 25 - the yellow face indicates a male
The wind was a bit gusty, but the sun really came out for a while and so did the odonata. All of a sudden there were dragonflies and damselflies all over the place. There were a few small blue and black damsels flitting around the paths and we were looking for one species in particular. They were mainly Blue-tailed and Azure Damselflies but we did manage to find our quarry, a single Variable Damselfly. The difference is slight but the dark wine-glass mark on the first segment is distinctive - especially when you manage to net one, which we did!
Variable Damselfly - Strumpshaw, 27 Jul 25
Variable DaMselfly - Strumpshaw, 27 Jul 25
Walking back along the track we noticed more and more dragonflies and, in one scan over a field there must have been 50 or so Migrant Hawkers zipping about. This encouraged us that the Lesser Emperors may be up and about but when we got back to the viewing screen the window was whipping in across the reedbeds and the sun was back behind the clouds. However, we gave it a good go and could still see a few hawkers zipping across the water, albeit at distance. After a while though we finally picked out an individual that was dark-abdomened with a pale blue saddle, a clear Lesser Emperor, and we saw it fly quite a few times in the lee of the reeds. So, not especially satisfactory but we saw it nonetheless. Also, one of the other dragonflies whizzing about revealed itself to be a Norfolk Hawker, another new species for me. Three new odonata species in just one morning!
Speckled Bush-cricket - Strumpshaw, 27 Jul 25 - a new species for me
Strumpshaw, 27 Jul 25 - BUBO lads walking the tracks behind Strumpshaw reserve
Cowbane - Strumpshaw, 27 Jul 25 - a restricted-range species, but common in the Norfolk Broads
We drove onto Great Yarmouth Dunes for lunch where we had a pretty good fry-up on the seafront. Our lunch-spot was very handy because our targets here were mainly botanical, and there were a few interesting species right next to the cafe. An invasive species, the Woolly Hawkweed, was found here and there were also some quite dense patches in the middle of the dunes. Also in the cafe area were a few Orange Mullein plants and more exotic species such as Sicilian Chamomile and Shrubby Hare’s-ear. Out in the dunes John pointed out a couple of new grass species for me, namely Lyme-grass and Grey Hair-grass. Various insect species were netted around the dunes, a new species for me being the wasp Astata boops.
Yarmouth Dunes, 27 Jul 25
Woolly Hawkweed - Yarmouth Dunes, 27 Jul 25
Orange Mullein - Yarmouth Dunes, 27 Jul 25
Lyme-grass - Yarmouth Dunes, 27 Jul 25 - the blue-grey species in the foreground
Dune Brittlestem - Yarmouth Dunes, 27 Jul 25
We returned back towards Norwich via the Broads near Woodbastwick, partly because there were rumours of a rare invasive waterlily there. However, when we got to the top of the lane, we were greeted with a sight that was more stream than lane. It was very underwater after the previous day’s deluge. We parked up just before the flood and looked for the relevant ponds. There was a locked gate which I hopped over to see if they were there, but I did come across a solitary Great White Egret feeding along the far edge. Technically this was a “self-found” tick which was a bonus. But no luck with the waterlilies but we did find plenty of bladderworts which seemed to mostly match Greater Bladderwort.
Woodbastwick area, 27 Jul 25
Great White Egret - Woodbastwick area, 27 Jul 25
Greater Bladderwort - Woodbastwick area, 27 Jul 25
Back in the car, we headed back home and at the end of the lane I felt a sudden and burning pain in my hand. I looked down and a wasp was bum-deep in my palm! It must have landed on my leg and when I rested my hand on my lap it went in for the kill. Very unpleasant indeed, the first wasp sting since I was a wee child, and it throbbed for the rest of the evening. All these years of wrangling moths out of the moth trap and netting various stinging species in the field and I finally get stung whilst sat in the back seat of a car - how embarrassing!