July 2025 - trip to UK (days 5 & 6)

On 28th July, breakfast was accompanied with a selection of moths from the trap. New species that we hadn’t had the previous few nights were Ear Moth, Nut-tree Tussock, Catoptria pinella and, a new species for me, Maple Prominent - a species which looks like the printer ran out of coloured ink before it managed to complete the forewing.

Maple Prominent - Shotesham, 27 Jul 25

Today we planned to head inland for some Breckland specialities, so the others were in the right direction when they headed off home in the afternoon. Our first port of call was Thompson Common with its famous “pingo ponds”, hundreds of small water-filled hollows in the ground formed during the last ice age. The part we went to was mostly woodland with a few areas of grassy, marshy areas amongst the ponds. I had a total of 22 ticks here, albeit mostly common species of grass, moss, water-plants and fungus pointed out to me. Mike lifted a log in the wood and there were five Great Crested Newts hiding under there - an unexpected, custard-bellied lifer.

Great Crested Newts - Thompson Common, 28 Jul 25

Great Crested Newt - Thompson Common, 28 Jul 25

One of the species we hoped to find here was Pool Frog, only one of two species of truly native frogs in the UK. However, the native Pool Frogs died out, and it was declared extinct in the 90s. So technically, this is a reintroduction, but at a site where it used to be common. We were lucky enough to find one just resting in the shallows of one of the “pingos”. It immediately stood out as different from a Common Frog, and it had a bright green line running down its back.

Pool Frog - Thompson Common, 28 Jul 25

Pool Frog - Thompson Common, 28 Jul 25

With all the pools here, it is an excellent site for odonata and we were hoping to find Scarce Emerald Damselfly. However, we only saw normal Emerald Damselflies, including one we caught o give it a good check. A more surprising find was a couple of Southern Migrant Hawkers racing around one of the ponds, a species we didn’t know was present here. A few other notable species that we saw were Narrow Buckler-fern, Slender Knapweed, Fine-leaved Water-dropwort, the fly Conops quadrifasciatus and Wolf’s-milk Slime Mould.

Southern Migrant Hawker - Thompson Common, 28 Jul 25

Emerald Damselfly - Thompson Common, 28 Jul 25

Our next spot was Cranwich Camp, which is an open area of Breckland grassland and was superb for rare moths. Racing around with the net, we managed to find lots of great species. The three new macro species for me were Marbled Clover, Oblique Striped and Tawny Wave, all specialities of the area and moths that I am extremely unlikely to see at home. As well as these, we saw lots of Ear Moths on the flower heads, a few Clouded Buff, a Nemophora metallica and a few Essex Skippers to boot. It was a superb to see all of these species in just one field.

Marbled Clover - Cranwich Camp, 28 Jul 25 - feeding from Viper’s-bugloss

Oblique Striped - Cranwich Camp, 28 Jul 25

Oblique Striped - Cranwich Camp, 28 Jul 25 - there was quite a bit of variation, some being more stripy than others, maybe the females

Tawny Wave - Cranwich Camp, 28 Jul 25

There were some other great invertebrates here also, with Striped-winged Grasshopper being quite impressive, although I was too focused on the moths to notice many other things. We also had a couple of excellent range-restricted flowers here, both of which were by the car park rather than in the fields. Proliferous Pink, which I had never heard of, and Spanish Catchfly, both of which are real Breckland specialities.

Stripe-winged Grasshopper - Cranwich Camp, 28 Jul 25

Proliferous Pink - Cranwich Camp, 28 Jul 25

Spanish Catchfly - Cranwich Camp, 28 Jul 25

Artichoke Gall - Cranwich Camp, 28 Jul 25

I’d not seen Stone Curlew for quite a while so I was pleased with a quick stop at Weeting Heath, the site of my first Stone Curlews back in the 80s. We saw three birds there plus a chick, but they were quite distant. Here we said goodbye to John, Ian and Mike who set off back home. I had one more night in Norfolk before driving back south the next day.

Stone Curlews - Weeting Heath, 28 Jul 25

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The next day we checked the moth trap again but no ticks this time. However, it was good to see an Oak Hook-tip for comparison with the Spiny Hook-tips at home.

Oak Hook-tip - Shotesham, 28 Jul 25

Brown-line Bright-eye - Shotesham, 28 Jul 25 - does not occur in Guernsey

After breakfast I set off south and spent most of the day slowly travelling down the motorways towards the New Forest where I was spending the night. Due to the ferry not running every single day, I had a spare day in the UK, so I decided that the New Forest was the place to find lots of good species. I arrived at the Travelodge late afternoon, but the weather was a little bit damp and dull, so I decided to leave searching for species until the next day. So, I had a relaxing time at the hotel and had a delicious takeaway pizza ready to give it some welly the next day.

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!