Honeyguide holidays without flights – some ideas

How to have a Honeyguide wildlife holiday without flying comes up fairly frequently, so this pulls together several discussion strands and ideas on this potentially wide-ranging subject. This blog cannot be a complete solution – but it’s a start.

Reasons for avoiding flying are various. Carbon footprint is the obvious one, especially if the alternative is using public transport, such as railways. Avoiding the hassles of the ‘airport experience’ another. There is also a perspective that ‘real’, overland travel is a better way to travel, to comprehend the distances of travel and to make the journey part of the experience, rather than just a means to an end.

Lille railway station, potentially useful for bypassing Paris.

Julie and I have done much of our travelling (UK and overseas) by public transport. Sometimes this is combined with a locally hired car, or hired bikes, or day excursions with a local operator. It takes a bit of organising, and can work well for a couple or family. Things can and do go wrong, though: finding solutions on the hoof is OK for yourselves, but far from ideal if travelling with a large group. So far, after trips to Avignon in the south of France, La Brenne (also France). Mallorca and Denmark, I’ve concluded that none of these have been obvious candidates to increase by the scale that you’d need for a Honeyguide group.

Lots to explore in La Brenne, and the flat landscape lends itself to bikes.

Some Honeyguiders have joined groups locally, having made their own way there. Usually this means a rendezvous with a group at an airport, though meeting where we stay is the other obvious option. Quite often these are Honeyguiders living in Europe, though not always. For example, twice UK Honeyguiders have driven to Honeyguide holidays in France, combining a group holiday in the Cévennes or Dordogne with a longer stay elsewhere.

Here are some other examples. Several Honeyguiders have made their own way to Santander airport to meet a Picos de Europa group. Two were from New Zealand as part of a wider visit to Europe. Another came by public transport from near Biarritz in France. From the UK, Julie Durdin has twice travelled with Brittany Ferries from Plymouth to Santander. On a third occasion, she caught the bus from Santander to Bilbao to meet a Spanish Pyrenees group. Julie also came on the train via Nîmes and Barcelona to Valencia in March 2024.

Train travel is usually smooth, but not on this occasion. This is a Deutsche Bahn train that stopped, with people waiting for the next train.

It's possible to go by train to Copenhagen, our rendezvous for Falsterbo. One option is the Harwich to Hook of Holland ferry, then east from there on trains. I’ve done this: it can work with an overnight stay in Hamburg, though be aware that Deutsche Bahn (train company in Germany) has a poor reputation for reliability. One year a minibus from a Falsterbo group detoured via Malmö in Sweden to pick up two Honeyguiders who’d come by train and ferry from Germany.

If you're in Copenhagen, it's a chance to see the waterfront at Nyhavn.

Getting to a Mediterranean island is more complex. For the Balearics, there are two companies that run ferries from Barcelona to Mallorca and Menorca. Our Menorca base is close to the island’s capital Mahón, so a pick-up shouldn’t be too difficult.

Much to see in Barcelona on route to the Balearics, including the Sagrada Familia.

A general comment is that many train routes go through Paris, with Eurostar arriving at Gare du Nord. Travelling onwards, the next step is usually crossing Paris to one of the other mainline stations, such as Gare d'Austerlitz. This can prove smooth – or can go wrong. Eurostar also goes to Lille, and if your TGV route can go south from there it can avoid the complications of Paris. Lille is a pretty and compact city, and an overnight stay is usually cheaper than Paris.

Not so long ago, many enjoyed a Norfolk break and other UK activities during the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 and 2021, naturally with no flights. It feels like these have run their course, though with a few requests we could do it again. 

A reminder that the above are simply examples from the recent past, and any Honeyguider can make their own suggestions for linking up with our current programme of holidays overseas. Travel just needs to be practical and to fit in with the main group.

For anyone who comes up with this kind of plan, holiday prices will be adjusted to take out the flight component. Please remember that without a flight you are not buying a flight-inclusive package, so you will not get an ATOL certificate and customer protection via the ATOL system. More information about this here.

Chris Durdin

South of Salamanca

Honeyguide’s South of Salamanca holiday is in a part of Spain which is nearly unknown as a nature holiday destination, despite its amazing landscapes, diversity and rich natural heritage. It’s adjacent to the better-known Extremadura, which – rightly – attracts interest and bookings fairly easily. A continuing challenge is to highlight the attractions of South of Salamanca, just to Extremadura’s north, and a similar distance west from Madrid.

Spanish sparrow in the snow (VB).

I started, writes Chris, by asking our guide in the area, Vega Bermejo, who grew up in England, how she came to be living in the area and why she loves it. 

“Having lived several years in a large Spanish city I was desperate to move to the countryside.  I had driven through the area the summer before, and about 15km from our present house, had said to Alfonso “I wouldn’t mind living around here!”

“Just a few months later, unexpectedly, I was contacted by a cousin who knew of a house for sale, relatively close to where I had spent my summer holidays as a child with my father's family, who were from Salamanca. Alfonso and I went to see the house and the land … and we moved in within months."

“Surrounded by rolling hills close to the Sierra de Bejar and Gredos, the sound of cranes as they come in to roost on the shores of the reservoir a stone’s throw away, bee-eaters perching on the wires in our village and black vultures circling overhead, fields full of orchids and tiny daffodils in the spring, lizards and turtles, butterflies of all colours and sizes throughout the year, huge old holm oaks providing homes to a myriad of lifeforms: these are all part of the reason I love this area and why I decided to share it with those who can appreciate it.“

"The climate in our holiday area is slightly cooler than Extremadura as it’s partly on the Castilian plateau. It’s a curious mix of Atlantic and Mediterranean habitats, which have generated regional endemics of flora such as Linaria nivea and Antirrhinum meonanthum and have both northern and southern species of birds such as Spanish sparrow and bluethroat, and butterflies such as two-tailed pasha and lesser spotted fritillary."

Linaria nivea, left, and Antirrhinum meonanthum, right (VB).

Vega is involved with protecting crop-nesting Montagu’s and hen harriers. The Junta (regional council) is involved, which is good though Vega works with a team from the local group of SEO (BirdLife Spain). Years vary, and happily 2024 was a good one, mainly because of the abundant winter and early spring rainfall which meant that the crops grew well and there was plenty of food in the form of voles.

SEO Salamanca’s harrier campaign, in 2024, located 23 raptor nests from which 76 birds fledged. Of these, 16 nests were Montagu’s harriers, fledging 47 young: the rest were hen harriers. Montagu’s harriers are declining in most areas and have stopped breeding in the UK, but here it’s a thriving population, thanks to SEO’s hard work (supported financially by this holiday) and the cooperation of farmers.

Another project for Vega is that in this past year, supported by a grant from the European Union, she has been working on an inventory of flora and fauna for the Biosphere Reserve of Sierras de Bejar y Francia, in particular wildlife of touristic interest. So she is in a unique position to know and share wildlife of her local area.

Helen Crowder was with Honeyguide’s group in 2023. Helen says, ”You'd be hard pressed to find more diversity of wildlife than in Spain's under-visited Wild West, expertly led by Vega Bermejo, who also knows exactly where to go for delightful lunches and coffees!”

Blue rock thrush, photographed on the holiday in 2023 (Cheryl Hunt).

Tim Hunt was there in 2023 too, and he adds these notes in praise of South of Salamanca.

“The area has a wide variety of birds, butterflies and plants to offer in a comparatively unexplored area of Spain. The way of life has altered over recent years with population moving away and changes in farming methods. Your guide, Vega who lives locally, can take you to many and varied habitats giving you time to walk and explore with many super photo opportunities. Vega has excellent English having been brought up in Leeds!

“Accommodation at the Hotel Rural Salvatierra overlooks the reservoir in a quiet village central to the area to be explored. You can look at the holiday report from 2023 to get the feel for Salamanca – just look at those ocellated lizards! A real Honeyguide experience with many and varied coffee stops and superb picnics and lunch stops.”

Ocellated lizard (Cheryl Hunt).

Chris Durdin and Vega Bermejo, November 2024

From Down Under to East Anglia: 13-16 October 2024

This is a blog about days out for a party of just three. Honeyguider Ceri from Queensland, Australia was with our group in the Spanish Pyrenees during the first week of October, after which she was keen to see some of East Anglia while she was in the UK. In other circumstances I might have invited local Honeyguiders to join us. However, a dose of Covid meant that wasn’t wise: we restricted this to three of us, namely me, Ceri and Ann, who had all tested positive. Chris Durdin

Sunday afternoon, 13 October: I picked up Ceri from Norwich bus station then, after a late lunch, we met Ann and walked around the main broad (gravel pit) at Whitlingham Country Park. A close little egret was a good start, and other water birds like great crested grebes, Egyptian geese, numerous cormorants and tufted ducks were also easy to see, being well used to people here. Ceri appreciated a chance to compare gulls: lesser black-backed, herring, black-headed and common.

Monday morning, 14 October, started wet, though happily that soon cleared. It’s good to watch birds though the eyes of a visitor from down under. So the well-stocked birdfeeders at RSPB Strumpshaw Fen were a boon, with a procession of blue, great and coat tits. From Fen Hide there were good views of marsh harriers and the ‘ping’ of bearded tits. We walked the Woodland Trial (the Fen Trail was under water anyway) where we saw our first Chinese water deer of the day.

From Fen Hide, Strumpshaw Fen.

We moved onto nearby Buckenham Marshes, where there was immediately another Chinese water deer. Looking towards Strumpshaw Fen we could see two red kites. The big numbers of winter birds were still to arrive here, but there were rooks, jackdaws and starlings in groups. The scrape area had wigeons, shovelers, teals and lapwings.

Lunch was back at Thorpe St Andrew, after which we headed to NWT Hickling Marshes. We started again by watching bird feeders, this time with a greenfinch, chaffinch and goldfinches. Our route was alongside Brendan’s Marsh to Stubb Mill, now in sunshine. On the marsh a great white egret stood tall above the many wigeons, teals and lapwings. Volunteer Mike Dawson stopped for a chat and to pass on useful information. We followed a spotted redshank as it fed. On the field on the other side, two of the several flying stock doves settled long enough to be seen properly.

Common darters warming themselves on wood.

The sun brought out dragonflies, and on one gate we counted 30 common darters warming themselves: they also liked landing on us. There was also a willow emerald damselfly, a very confiding male migrant hawker and a lovely red admiral.

Koniks at Hickling, their ancestors brought from Poland a few decades ago. Stubb Mill is in the background.

Cranes had been calling and, exactly as we arrived at Stubb Mill, a stroke of luck – 17 flew past. Two could be seen in the distance on the grazing marshes of Heigham Holmes. A kestrel settled on the mill. Cranes continued to be vocal as we walked back, as were many red deer, as it was the time of the rut. On the way back, two more mammals: a hare that ran then somehow hid from view in a stubble field, and a close view of a muntjac.

Cranes at Stubb Mill, November 2021. 

Hickling collage. Top left, male migrant hawker. Right: common darter on a hat.
Bottom:left: a great white egret on Brendan's Marsh. Bottom right: more darters.

Tuesday, 15 October: south-east to Suffolk, starting at RSPB Minsmere nature reserve. Outside the visitor centre were impressively big parasol fungi. We walked along north wall to east hide, from where there were hundreds of ducks: wigeons, teals, shovelers, gadwalls, mallards, a few shelducks and two pintails. Waders were very thin in numbers, just a single dunlin, a couple of both black-tailed godwits and avocets.

At Minsmere: parasol fungus by the visitor centre, and wigeon among buttonweed on the Scrape.

On the beach, Ceri’s first sighting of the North Sea, we quickly saw groups of dark-bellied geese flying south. One group had a single pink-footed goose at its head, others had some cormorants joining the procession. Two birders were standing by one of the WW2 concrete blocks, one of which was my old friend John Grant, now president of the Suffolk Bird Group, clicker (for counting birds) in hand. They’d been counting since first thing and had already logged 700 brent geese. Later I heard that they finished for the day at 14:30 with 1,428 brent geese counted to be entered onto BirdTrack.

Sea watching with John Grant (centre, behind my telescope) on Minsmere's beach (Ceri Pearce).

At the sluice we turned to complete the loop around The Scrape. Three bearded tits dashed past, and the avocets were close to South Hide. There was a late-flowering marsh mallow. Back at the visitor centre, it was time for lunch and shopping.

For the afternoon, we drove the short distance to the National Trust’s Dunwich Heath. The ‘best-bird-near-the-car-park’ rule kicked in when a Dartford warbler sat on a scrubby bush. After that there were few birds to see, not even a stonechat, perhaps not helped by the grey weather. Ann noticed a common darter caught in a spider’s web, and we saw the garden spider circle then grasp the dragonfly. Western gorse and a few springs of bell heather were in flower. We found more parasol fungi, a fly agaric, birch milkcap and tiers of birch polypores. It was time to head back to Norwich.

The above mentions mostly bigger wildlife, so would be only fair to add that Ann, being Ann, was finding a steady trickle of mini-beasts from bees to galls to willow emerald egg-laying scars, and dozens of caddis-flies.

Dunwich Heath: birch milkcap (Ceri Pearce), death of a darter.

Wednesday 16 October: knowing Ceri was heading for York, nice though York is, local pride meant it seemed only right to give her a gentle tour of Norwich’s equally good highlights this warm October morning. Our route was Norwich Castle, Royal Arcade, the market and Guildhall, The Lanes, Elm Hill, Cathedral and Pull’s Ferry, then back via London Street to take in various old banks and Jarrolds, all done with plenty of time to catch a lunchtime train. A peregrine twice flew over us near the cathedral, where you could see its nesting box. 

Hickling guided walk, 19 August 2024

As we gathered in NWT’s Hickling Broad and Marshes nature reserve’s car park, the talk was on a strange subject, namely galls on alder catkins. This was prompted by two things: alders in the car park, and photos in the printed holiday report I passed to Ann, which included alder catkins with galls that she’d found in Bulgaria’s Western Rhodopes, in that case on grey or speckled alder Alnus incana rather than our common alder, Alnus glutinosa. More on these later.

The introductory chat with Rachel at the visitor centre was punctuated by observing a black-tailed skimmer on the ground and hornets going into the centre’s roof. We started by failing to find a wasp spider in the long grass, which was a star find on the Honeyguide group’s visit this time last year, on 24 August 2023.

Ruddy darter.

There were dragonflies everywhere today. Ruddy darters and common darters were especially numerous, and many more black-tailed skimmers landed on paths throughout the morning. Blue emperors, brown hawkers and a southern hawker – that was when we were back near the visitor centre later – added to the mix.

Twice willow emerald damselflies landed and posed for us. Other species today were blue-tailed and common blue damselflies.

Willow emerald damselfly.

Much of the interest today was in various invertebrates. Three of these (a fourth, Roesel's bush-cricket, jumped too quickly for a photo) are in the photo collage below: dingy footman, green shield bug and the chrysalis of a drinker moth, which – from the hole on the side of the pupa’s case – had either been parasitised or predated.

Top: green shield bug and dingy footman moth. Bottom: drinker moth chrysalis and female black-tailed skimmer.

Birds in the reedbed area were fairly quiet, as you might expect in August: distant calling cranes, a chew chew of a greenshank, Cetti’s warbler, glimpses of bearded tit. But it paid to look up from time to time, such us twice when a spoonbill flew past, and for that other big white bird now regular at Hickling, great white egret.

Ah yes, those galls on female alder catkins, which are caused by the ascomycete fungus Taphrina alni. The best place for these, we found, was on alders by the viewpoint over Hickling Broad, where we’d stopped to see the usual great crested grebes and herd of mute swans. There were at least 10 of these galls here, plus a few later, and the photo collage gives a feel for the variation in size, colour and shape, all in a range of tongue-like shapes.

Galls on female alder catkins,  caused by the fungus Taphrina alni. 

In late summer and early autumn, we all instinctively turn over oak leaves to look for galls. It’s interesting how the number of these vary from year to year. As well as many common spangle galls, what caught the eye this year were egg-shaped galls on the veins of oak leaves caused by the gall wasp Neuroterus anthracinus. Some were green, others 'ripening' to red and turning blotchy.

Galls on oak leaves caused by the gall wasp Neuroterus anthracinus.

It was too late in the year to see the rare fen mason wasp, though we did look closely at patches on the ground that had been fenced to protect them. We found one distinct ‘chimney’ or ‘turret’ from an underground nest. Back at the visitor centre, warden John Blackburn was saying that the soil pellets discarded by burrowing females are equally distinctive and therefore a good indicator of the wasps' presence: these are also evident in the photo.

Fen mason wasp ‘turret’.

Farther round there were three freshly emerged small tortoiseshell butterflies on hemp agrimony. Gatekeepers were also fairly numerous.

Small tortoiseshell on hemp agrimony. 

Even creeping thistle had two points of interest. The swelling on the stem is a gall caused by the picture-winged fly Urophora cardui. The creamy-white foliage is explained by this quote: "This is caused by Pseudomonas syringae, a bacteria that produces a chemical called tagetitoxin, which poison chloroplasts and causes chlorosis." 

Creeping thistle: gall and bleaching caused by a bacterium.

Brendan’s Marsh was relatively quiet here, though we returned to look over it from the other side after we’d had our picnic lunches. From the viewing platform it was easy to find two nests of spoonbills: this species is nesting at Hickling for a second year. There were also two spoonbills on Brendan’s Marsh, at least three great white egrets and several little egrets. These were mixed in with many geese (Canada, greylag and Egyptian), ducks in eclipse plumage, namely mallard, gadwall, shoveler and teal, lapwings and a single ruff.

Spoonbill collage of digiscoped images:two on Brendan's Marsh and distant nest.

Brendan's Marsh: great and little egrets and various wildfowl (digiscoped).

Back in the car park, now we’d got our eye in for them, we found a few more galls on the alder catkins over our parked cars, which we showed to Rachel. Perhaps not as showy for sharing with visitors as last year’s wasp spider, but certainly a point of interest.

Chris Durdin

Plumstead and Holt Country Park, 8 August 2024

This was a guided walk with a difference, starting at the house of my late father, John Durdin, the Old Post Office in Plumstead, the walk on this occasion supporting the Honeyguide Charitable Trust. It would be fair to say that six Honeyguiders enjoyed their tour of the garden, house, cellar and small cottages in the grounds, with various historic features discussed. At one point there were four buzzards in the sky.

Pond at Plumstead Green.

We set off for a local walk, stopping first at St Michael’s church, which happened to be open as some Plumstead residents were meeting there for coffee. We took a look inside this compact and attractive church, which has two large paintings by John Durdin. At Plumstead Green we stopped at the village pond, restored a decade and a half ago. A blue emperor hunted over the pond and there were distant blue damselflies, but these were trumped by a female southern hawker that landed on a hogweed stem, allowing close views and photos in its characteristic upright perched position. 

Southern hawker, female.

We walked around the adjacent conservation meadow, now (paths apart) with high vegetation dominated by hogweed and wild carrot, plus a patch of tansy and birdsfoot trefoil here and there.

Plumstead's conservation meadow.

On the edge of a sugar beet field we looked at arable ‘weeds’, including black bindweed, which in my flower book is classified as a dock, though in more recent references it’s put in Polygonaceae (knotweeds, such as redshank). Redshank, field pansy (heartsease), fat hen and hedge mustard were among the other ‘weeds’. We turned left in the wood, and obvious marble galls on oak prompted some leaf turning, and we found silk button and spangle galls. By the sheltered edge of the words there were about 20 hunting dragonflies, mostly migrant hawkers. We returned to Plumstead up Jericho Lane, passing a nice clump of yellow toadflax. We had picnic lunches in the garden, and it was hot enough for us to seek the shade of the large cooking apple tree. A red kite passed by, over the field behind the Old Post Office.

The weather had become overcast as we arrived at Holt Country Park, and there was briefly a hint of drizzle, though not enough for a coat. The grey sky meant no butterflies on the buddleias in the car park, and we walked steadily through the woods past the big pond and onto the dry heath part of Holt Lowes. Here the tall common (European) gorse was not in flower; instead the generally shorter and unscented western gorse was flowering, as is typical in August. Despite the lack of sunshine, on the heath there seemed to be plenty of butterflies, mostly gatekeepers, meadow browns and peacocks.

Western gorse, bell heather and heather.

The wide, sandy path had various little holes on account of solitary bees and ants, and in two places we found what I was hoping we'd see: bee wolf. The first disappeared quickly down a burrow, the second we watched digging for a good while before it disappeared. It’s a species spreading further north and a recent colonist here.

Bee wolf.

The wet edge of Holt Lowes meant various difference species, starting with lots of lesser spearwort and ragged robin. The weather was against us for the star invertebrate, keeled skimmer, just two brief views of flying blue-grey males, though again there were plenty of migrant hawkers in the wing, plus a ruddy darter. There was plenty of botanical interest: bog pimpernel (though it took a while to find some last, lingering pink flowers), tormentil, marsh lousewort, clubmoss and pink crossed-leaved heath to add to the bell and common heathers in drier areas. A single heath spotted orchid was a surprise, this late in the year, and there was lots of round-leaved sundew.

Round-leaved sundew.

Tormentil - a four-petalled cinquefoil.

Ann and I were searching alder buckthorn bushes for traces of brimstone butterflies, but we found only nibbled leaves. However, Ann did find a fine female speckled bush cricket. That was not long before we’d completed our circuit of Holt Lowes, and we then returned to the car park

Speckled bush-cricket on an alder buckthorn leaf.

The walk plus additional donations for books and other items raised £400 for the Honeyguide Charitable Trust.

Chris Durdin

‘Big Yellow’ bee orchids 2024

Today (6 June) I made my annual visit to Big Yellow Self Storage on Canary Way in central Norwich to count bee orchids. I have been keeping an eye on them here for 16 seasons, since I first found a few flowering spikes in 2009.

Bee orchid at Big Yellow Self Storage, 6 June 2024.

I thought there was a risk that my visit might be a little earlier in the year than ideal, but not so. Though it hasn’t felt like summer weather, as the UK has had its warmest May on record the bee orchids were well advanced. I found 15 spikes, most in flower, the odd one still in bud. It’s not a large number, but good to know that they are still there.

Oxeye daisies opposite Norwich City FC.

The main visual impact of the ‘meadow in the city’ now, as in recent years, is a sheet of oxeye daisies. Bee orchids often grow on quite bare ground or short turf, so I was more pleased than disappointed with this modest count. The orchids are tucked away around the back, rather than on the big area left uncut opposite Norwich City FC.

Oxeye daisies around the back, a new digital display hoarding and, if you look carefully, the pink sepals of a bee orchid (foreground, centre). 

Common broomrape (Orobanche minor) in two colour forms.

Ragged robin.

A few broomrapes, a ragged robin, crested dog's-tail grass and some perforate St John’s-wort added interest. About 10 of the oxeye daisies had green beetles on them: female thick-legged flower beetles, I think (only the males have the chunky thighs). Common blue damselflies drifted among the long grass, here far from water.

Thick-legged flower beetle, female (I think).

There is a change around the railway station side of the L-shaped meadow, with two large digital advertising hoardings having been installed last winter. For now, the vegetation around these is cut, though as it grows back it could provide the barer, nutrient-poor ground that wild flowers like.

Bee orchid across the road.

The biggest surprise was when I crossed Canary Way to look at the uncut grass on the other side of the road. This is the area that is full of canary-yellow crocuses in early spring close to the football ground. There, by the base of a tree, was another bee orchid, so the 16^th today. Big Yellow cannot take credit for the uncut vegetation here, and I don’t know who is following the No Mow May advice and extending that into June – presumably one of the local authorities. However, it’s fair to give Big Yellow the likely credit for the source of seed for the orchid here.

Cigarette end container turned blue tit nest box.

I called into Big Yellow’s office to give them my results and point them towards the orchid across the road. They shared another bit of wildlife news: an outdoor box for cigarette stubs has become a blue tit nesting box, and was suitably labelled as such. Curiously, on yesterday’s Jeremy Vine show on BBC Radio 2 there was a similar story, about a cigarette stub box used by blue tits at Norwich Research Park. There they were reported as having fledged: here, at Big Yellow, the adult blue tits were actively feeding young.

Chris Durdin

Previously on Big Yellow’s bee orchids (selected): 
Photos on Facebook 2022 
Bee orchids bonus in lockdown (2020) 
Bee orchids bounce back (2019) 
Bee Orchids get my vote (2017) 
Big Yellow bee orchids are back (2016) 
The Meadow in the City (2015)

 

Spring Bird Walk in Eaton Park, 2 May 2024

 

Guest blog by Helen Mitchell, Friends of Eaton Park

This year’s bird walk with Chris Durdin took place on the most perfect May day. The sun shone down from a blue sky. The park is stunning at this time of year. Many trees are just in leaf and are the freshest of greens. On the pitch and putt the hawthorn trees are clouds of fluffy white and Bluebell Wood is doing its thing, beautifully.

We kicked off with blackbird song in the rose garden before stopping for a while to enjoy a greenfinch. It had settled in to sing on the edge of one of the narrow-leaved ashes beside the Crazy Golf. Chris set up his scope and passers-by joined us to peer at the little bird. Later we heard a second greenfinch, on the North side of the park. This assured us that there are at least a two greenfinches in Eaton Park. Numbers have been down and we haven’t spotted them on previous walks so this was a real pleasure.

'Islands of meadow saxifrage in the meadow'

A walk down walnut tree avenue then to the rotunda and on to North Park Meadow. There we heard and watched blue tits and wrens and admired the islands of meadow saxifrage in the meadow. The tiny white flowers of this ancient meadow plant only come out at this time of year. We were also happy to see little forests of yellow rattle starting to grow.

The group on the edge of the meadow.

Walking down the north side of the park towards Bluebell Wood we admired the blossom on North Park Avenue’s Judas trees – their bubble gum pink branches unmissable. An eagle-eyed member of the group spotted a pair of blue tits nesting in the top of a street light post that had lost its cap (pictured for interest but sadly without birds!).

Street light that had a blue tit nesting in it.

Above the cricket pitch we spotted a buzzard and stopped for a while to watch it circling overhead. Several of us had seen these handsome birds of prey over gardens in West Norwich. Having suffered a steep decline in numbers, there are now four times as many buzzards in the UK as there were in the 1970s.

In Bluebell Wood, we listened to a chiffchaff. Named after their onomatopoeic song, these small warblers have becoming increasingly common. They usually migrate to southern Europe and North Africa but climate change has seen more of them overwinter in the UK. In Norwich they’ve been heard near the ring road and even close to Unthank Road shops.

There was a possible parakeet in Bluebell Wood which triggered a report of regular sightings of whole families living on Marston Marshes. These walks are always about sharing sightings, knowledge and enthusiasm as much as enjoying birds and nature.

Spotted medick as we entered the wood. 

In Bluebell Wood, the wildflowers were an absolute picture. Friends of Eaton Park have laid down woodchip on the pathway over a couple of years. In a spring of constant rain, the path has remained largely passable keeping walkers on track and away from the wildflowers. As well as bluebells there’s the dazzling white of great stitchwort, an increasing proliferation of the delicate umbellifer pignut and the glorious pink of red campion and herb robert.

In Bluebell Wood

Bluebell Wood.

With sunlight pouring through gaps in the ancient oaks and wildflowers all around us, bluebell wood was quite stunningly beautiful.

Heading back to the rose garden we were treated to the sight of a couple of sparrows hopping about in a silver birch, pecking at the leaves and twigs for insects and caterpillars. As always we ran over time, and people peeled off, most of them also after 7.30pm, to pick up bikes they’d parked earlier, or take the best exit home.

Common polypody on the old putting green hut.

For details of nature walks and other events and activities in Eaton Park visit friendsofeatonpark.co.uk/events-activities/ or follow the Friends on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/eatonparkfriend/