Poker Wood, Honeyguide social, 3 July 2025

Four of us had been with the creators of Poker Wood, Malcolm and Jane Key, in the Picos de Europa, so that and mention of 500 pyramidal orchids were good reasons to arrange what was, for me, an overdue visit. (I suggest that readers of this blog click through to Poker Wood to read about Malcolm and Jane’s project to create a new woodland near their home in Suffolk.)

We met on hardstanding by the main road, then our vehicles were led to a hidden entrance to this private wood, to park by the custom-designed barn – home to various bits of kit plus, helpfully, a loo and a small kitchen with a kettle.

In Poker Wood.

After coffee, four Honeyguiders plus a friend of our hosts spent a delightful morning walking roughly a figure-of-eight around this 22-acre mix of new woodland and meadows. We started in a wide ride where a southern hawker dragonfly flew then perched in characteristic upright fashion. Ann is always alert to small things: today a 22-spot ladybird. 

Being a sunny day there were butterflies everywhere: meadow browns, ringlets, skippers and more. The collage photo below has three that stayed still enough to be photographed: large skipper, ringlet and 6-spot burnet moth.

Large skipper (left), 6-spot burnet moth and ringlet.

The meadows and sunny glades are quite a feature of Poker Wood. So too is the range of tree species, some ‘inherited’, some added. These included wild service trees, small leaved-limes (we were surprised how large the early-stage leaves are on these after being cut back) and smooth-leaved elm.

Small-leaved lime.

Lots of tree leaves = lots of galls on these, and Chinery’s Britain’s Plant Galls book came in very useful.

Galls collage. Top: bright red pustules on field maple caused by the gall mite Aceria myreadeum. A mix of spangle and silk button galls on oak, caused by gall wasps Neuterus quercusbaccarum and N. numismalis. Robin's pin cushion on dog rose, caused by the gall wasp Diplolepis rosae.
Bottom: oak apple, the gall wasp Biorhiza pallida. Pimples on cherry plum, the gall mite Eriophyes similis (Chinery notes how these are reddish on blackthorn but green on other Prunus species.) A different maple gall on veins: the mite Aceria macrochela, green at first, reddish later. Nail galls on small-leaved lime, induced by the mite Eriophyles lateannulatus.

Those pyramidal orchids were as impressive as we hoped, and no-one disputed Malcolm’s estimate of 500 spikes. They were well spread though one section of the wood, and I counted 50 while standing at one spot alone.

Pyramidal orchid.

Back at the barn, a sparrowhawk flew over as we ate picnic lunches. Then Malcolm asked me to come and identify a flower recently discovered: it was the lovely betony, an addition to Poker Wood’s species lists.

Betony.

Poker Wood is a private site and there is no public access without an invitation. 

Chris Durdin

Thorpe Marshes at its colourful best

“When I am an old I shall wear purple,” is an opening line to a poem that comes to mind visiting Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s Thorpe Marshes nature reserve in summer. Looking up the poem, I found it actually says “When I am an old woman I shall wear purple,” but you get the idea.

Top: purple loosestrife and common carder bee on water mint.
Bottom: greater willowherb and marsh woundwort.

The ungrazed marsh is at its most colourful best in July and August, and is dominated by purple and pink. Spires of purple loosestrife are the most obvious, but there’s a supporting purple cast of marsh woundwort, water mint and red bartsia, which is purplish, despite its name. 

Red bartsia bee on red bartsia, usually seen in August.

The bartsia supports a scarce bee species, called red bartsia bee, though it takes patience and a practised eye to find it. The boldest pink flower is hemp agrimony and there is pink-flowered greater willowherb in profusion.

Norfolk hawker, photographed 23 July, which is late season for this dragonfly species, hence the tatty wing.

Norfolk hawker dragonflies were easy to see at Thorpe Marshes during June and their season continues for at least the first half of July. They are certainly in good numbers this year: on one survey we counted 52 and on another 43. Though common in much of the Broads, they are especially easy to see at Thorpe Marshes.

Conveniently for visitors and dragonfly surveyors, Norfolk hawkers like to quarter ditches with open water at around head height. Their combination of green eyes and a brown body makes identification fairly easy. If there is a confusion species it’s the later emerging brown hawker, which tends to fly higher and faster and has amber-coloured wings.

Scarce chasers, 15 June 2025

A different dragonfly species has been creating excitement at Thorpe Marshes this year: the scarce chaser. It’s a dragonfly with a rather limited distribution in southern and eastern England, though where it occurs, ‘scarce’ can be a misnomer, such as at RSPB Strumpshaw Fen nature reserve, just a short distance along the Yare Valley to the east. Before this year, there were just occasional records of scarce chaser in the Norwich area. This year, however, several have been showing well at Thorpe Marshes. It helps that they like to perch on vegetation at a height where they can be easy to see and photograph. Features include blue eyes, a blue abdomen and a dark patch on wing-bases.

Article written for Just Thorpe St Andrew magazine, here as a blog. Chris Durdin lives in Thorpe St Andrew. He runs Honeyguide Wildlife Holidays www.honeyguide.co.uk and is the guide for the monthly guided walks at NWT Thorpe Marshes. News, wildlife highlights, events and more - straight to your inbox from Norfolk Wildlife Trust. Turn your inbox wild today: norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk/SignUp  

Hickling, Honeyguide social, 1 July 2025

Today’s gathering was to meet Mervin and Denise, on holiday in the Broads, providing an excuse for seven local Honeyguiders to visit Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s Hickling Broad and Marshes. It was the final day of a heatwave, which was good for seeing butterflies and dragonflies, though the heat was less severe here close to the east coast.

Rutpela maculata, spotted longhorn.

Even the grassy picnic area by the reserve’s visitor centre seemed alive with butterflies, such as small skippers, and dragonflies, the first common darters of the year for me. Then in the corner where the walk onto the reserve starts there were more still, especially three white admiral butterflies around the last few remaining bramble flowers, plus a spotted longhorn beetle. With these were ringlets, commas and other commoner butterflies. Then there was a good view of a four-spotted chaser on the right and a Norfolk hawker on the left.

Warden John Blackburn and two of his team passed us, saying; “Hello, just been moving the Koniks.” And from Cadbury Hide there they were, four of these hardy horses, first brought to Suffolk from Poland by the late Derek Moore in the 1990s, initially to Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s Redgrave & Lopham Fen nature reserve, and now a feature of conservation grazing work on many East Anglian wetlands.

Koniks at Hickling nature reserve, from Cadbury Hide.

In the reedbeds we heard bearded tits and a late season sedge warbler, and we both heard and saw reed buntings and reed warblers. We paused by the padlocked gate behind which is a regular spot for the rare fen mason wasp. They were probably there, but they were a bit too far away for us to be sure. Ann was alert to the ID of a close dragonfly: a ruddy darter, with black legs, though less ruddy in colour this early in their season than later.

Ruddy darter.

We overlooked Hickling Broad where, as everywhere, there were marsh harriers and one of several fast-flying swallowtail butterflies that we saw this morning. Then into the shade of oak trees and downy birches where, given Merv’s expertise, we looked for galls. There were oak apples, the first signs of tiny spangle galls and a new one for me, the swollen lumps caused by the gall wasp Andriscus curvator.

Galls on oak caused by the gall wasp Andriscus curvator.

For much of this time there were two more informal additions to our group, a mother and daughter, the latter in Norfolk for a pond management course, happy to share some of our findings and IDs. These included a brown hawker flying around the area where later they took a boat trip. Then, at last, a swallowtail that wasn’t flying at a vast rate of knots, though it wasn’t still enough for an easy photo. Three great egrets flew over.

There wasn’t much to see from Bittern Hide but just after we’d come out of the hide there were three plastic posts that were plainly protecting something. In a bare patch of ground, we watched fen mason wasps coming and going into holes, many of which had distinctive ‘turrets’ of dry mud. The photos also show the granola-like piles of soil pellets created by their digging.

Fen mason wasp collage.

There were six little egrets, some lapwings and a single shoveler on Brendan’s Marsh. Then it was time to head back to the visitor centre area where, luckily, a picnic bench in the shade was free.

Gatekeeper.

And then there were four, as after packed lunches and ice creams several of the group went onto other things, leaving Merv, Denise, Ann and me. I picked up the telescope and we walked along the other side of Brendan’s Marsh. The number of insects here was brilliant: among the butterflies, gatekeepers were especially numerous, and blue-tailed damselflies (and others) seemed to like to perch on gorse. Merv pointed out galls on both blackthorn and hawthorn leaves. On the viewing platforms overlooking the marsh the wind was almost chilly – a strange sensation of late.

Blue-tailed damselflies.

Blackthorn gall, cause by the gall mite Eriophyes similis.

John Blackburn had told me that he was not sure if Hickling’s spoonbills were nesting for a third year: they are extraordinarily late in starting to nest and easily deterred by stroppy herons in the heronry area. However, there is good news: two distant white lumps in dead trees were apparently occupied nests of spoonbills, though it took some patience before one moved enough to confirm its identity.

Cinnabar moth caterpillars on ragwort.

We continued the short distance to the Stubb Mill viewpoint from where there was, predictably, little to see on a summer's day. Near here we found cinnabar moth caterpillars on ragwort plants. It struck us how the caterpillars were on generally dry, isolated and sometimes trampled plants. As we returned, there were lush patches of ragwort in among reeds that you might imagine were much more attractive for a hungry caterpillar, but apparently not.

Chris Durdin

No show for ‘Big Yellow’ bee orchids in drought year

First, the bad news. On my annual visit today (4 June) to Big Yellow Self Storage on Canary Way in central Norwich, the bee orchid count was zero. That’s the first time I’ve found none in 17 years of visits, since I first found a few flowering spikes in 2009.

I wasn’t surprised. Bee orchids are known to respond to weather conditions, and they will have stayed dormant in England’s driest spring for more than 100 years – see Met Office story via this link.

Oxeye daisies outside Big Yellow Self Storage, Norwich. You can come by bus to see them ...

The good news is that, despite the spring drought, the ‘meadow in the city’ continues to provide a visual treat, mostly on account of its oxeye daisies, and a wildlife refuge.

Some of the supporting cast of flowers is shown in this collage of photos.

Collage of flowers from the meadow. Left: a lemon yellow mouse-ear hawkweed. Top: ragged robin and part of a patch of black medick.
Below: scarlet pimpernel, more usually found on disturbed ground, and hedgerow cranesbill (also known as Pyrenean cranebill). This was one of four cranesbill species here; the others were dovesfoot cranesbill, herb robert and round-leaved cranesbill.

Flowers were attracting a good range of insects, including two meadow brown butterflies, which were too quick to photograph. Goldfinches were singing, there were common blue damselflies, despite being some distance from water, and several small beetles and bees. Many of the beetles were probably female thick-legged flower beetles – the females lack the male’s thick legs – an idea supported by an obvious male which I photographed.

Male thick-legged flower beetle on an oxeye daisy.

Common blue damselfly, perching on an adjacent hedge.

A red-tailed bumblebee fed on the flowers of creeping cinquefoil and, especially, black knapweed.

Red-tailed bumblebee on a black knapweed.

I called into see the Big Yellow team, and we agreed not to be discouraged by the lack of orchids in one dry year. The advice here is the same as for anyone with uncut grass: there will always be wildlife benefits of adopting No Mow May, as encouraged by conservation charity Plantlife, and ideally extending that into June.

Sunburst lichen Xanthoria parietina on a birch trunk; a common broomrape, presumably parasitic here on oxeye daisies.

An intriguing bee on an oxeye daisy. Best guess is bare-saddled colletes Colletes similis, from advice from bee recorder Tim Strudwick.

Years will vary, and there is always something of interest to find in a meadow, including in the centre of a city.

 Chris Durdin

 Previously on Big Yellow’s bee orchids (selected):

‘Big Yellow’ bee orchids 2024

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)

‘Big Yellow’ bee orchids 2024

Honeyguide and GOB Menorca

Guest blog by Honeyguide leader Chris Gibson, highlighting the long partnership between Honeyguide Wildlife Holidays and the  Grup Balear d'Ornitologia i Defensa de la Naturalesa (GOB – the Balearic Ornithological Group) - here GOB Menorca.

In Menorca, as usual, our group was visited one evening by GOB, the recipients of our conservation contribution. That donation was £560 this year, bringing the total over the years to £13,598 (mostly GOB Menorca, also some to GOB Mallorca during the 1990s). We always value those visits as they give us great insight into the wonderful and varied work that GOB Menorca manages to do on a relative shoestring, from advocacy in relation to new developments, agricultural stewardship, marine conservation, animal rescue and recuperation, environmental education and running a native drought-tolerant plant nursery. In the UK it takes half a dozen major charities to cover such a wealth of activity! 

This year we welcomed Carlos Coll (past President of GOB) and his wife Deborah, both old friends of Honeyguide, and the new President of GOB, Margarita Masferrer. As always they gave a delightful presentation and stayed with us for a lovely informal meal at Matxani Gran. Margarida this year wanted to mark the valuable contributions we have made, the only wildlife tour company visiting the island that does this, by presenting us with two books. 

First, a copy of a sumptuous new photographic book that has emerged from the seemingly booming Spanish birding scene, inscribed ‘With love and gratitude from GOB Menorca’. Of course we reflected those sentiments back to GOB, with love and gratitude for all they do to keep the island so special.

'With love and gratitude from GOB Menorca'

And secondly, perhaps even more meaningfully, as it is published by GOB Menorca, an educational guide from their series ‘Little Animals of Menorca’, this one the story of a family of black-winged stilts. The illustrations and much of the text is aimed at kids, but each page has a section of ‘grown-up information’ intended to encourage families to learn together. That is the future!

Chris Gibson, April 2025

Note: This holiday, in April 2025, was Honeyguide's 24th group on Menorca, all based at Matxani Gran. Twenty of these have been in the spring and four in autumn. We took five groups to Mallorca in the 1990s, three in the spring, two in the autumn.

Signs of Spring

What was the first butterfly you saw this spring? The bright yellow brimstone is a distinctive early species, the ‘butter that flies’ that probably inspired the word butterfly. More likely as a first-sighting, though, is a comma or a peacock butterfly. What all three have in common is that they spend the winter as adults so can wake to take advantage of early-season nectar. Butterflies that overwinter as a chrysalis, such as orange tips, appear a little later (my first orange tip was in the garden today, 1 April).

Comma, this one was in February.

We all love spring flowers, and perhaps primroses, cowslips and violets come to mind, then bluebells a little later. Often less glamorous species are commoner and overlooked. Dead-nettles – red and white – are two of these, and can be found easily. Red dead-nettles are often on roadsides, patches of grass or unmanicured lawns, sometimes with dandelions. These ruderal flowers – a fancy word for growing on waste ground – provide valuable nectar sources for early season bees and other insects.

Red-dead nettle, late March 2025.

In gardens we tend to choose cultivated flowers that bloom early as they lift the spirits. These can benefit wildlife. A good example is lungwort (Pulmonaria), which is very popular with the hairy-footed flower bee. Though strictly speaking called a solitary bee, often there will be several feeding in the same place.

Hairy-footed flower bee on lungwort. This is a male, which looks similar to a common carder bee. Females are black.

Now is a good time to think about ‘No Mow May’. This idea is promoted by conservation group Plantlife, and the name says it all: having an area of grass that remains uncut to benefit wildlife. Naturally you can start this in April and extend the idea into June. If it’s not practical for all your lawn to be long, then do what you can. It can be surprising to see what flowers are just waiting to emerge, helped by sympathetic management. Take time, if you can, to witness the extra wildlife activity on a patch of mixed long grass and flowers, compared with a cut lawn.

No Mow May collage, all in my Thorpe St Andrew garden.

Spring and birds singing go together, and the greatest variety and volume of bird song is during April and the first half of May. A dawn chorus at a nature reserve may be a lovely experience, but it isn’t for everyone. Happily, some of our best songsters are birds of parks and gardens, such as blackbirds, robins and dunnocks. And here’s a lazy alternative to a dawn chorus: step outside and try a dusk chorus. For birds, a simple logic applies, morning or evening: when light levels are low, feeding is less practical, so they concentrate instead on establishing territory and attracting a mate.

Chaffinch in song (Barry Madden).

Article written for Just Thorpe St Andrew magazine, here as a blog. Chris Durdin lives in Thorpe St Andrew. He runs Honeyguide Wildlife Holidays  www.honeyguide.co.uk and is the guide for the monthly guided walks at NWT Thorpe Marshes.

Cruise to N Africa and Iberia, February 2025

This blog is to help answer questions such as ‘Did you enjoy your first cruise?*’ and ’Where did you go and what did you see?’ Yes, I did enjoy it, and no, I didn’t get seasick.

The cruise was with Julie on Fred Olsen’s Borealis, a relatively small cruise ship (up to 1500 passengers, not quite full); dates were 15 – 27 February, departing from Portsmouth. After three days at sea, we had two stops in north Africa and four on the Iberian Peninsula.

Wildlife at sea: gannets, some guillemots and kittiwakes when near France, a couple of great skuas, though long periods of nothing. Dolphins only when I was somewhere else. The best sightings were when we were in the Strait of Gibraltar when half a dozen short-toed eagles and 20 black kites were making the crossing from Morocco to Tarifa. Dragonflies flying around the moored Borealis at Ceuta were vagrant emperors, probably also about to migrate to Europe.

White stork, Rabat.

First port of call was the huge and mostly modern coastal city of Casablanca, though we chose the excursion to Morocco’s capital, Rabat. This included three stops in the city centre, including a garden with bulbuls, blackcap & chiffchaff and many nesting white storks. An excellent lunch in Rabat, too.

Where do lesser black-backed gulls go in winter? For many, to Casablanca to sit on containers, it seems.

At the next stop, the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, we chose the excursion that went over the border to Tétouan. The border crossing was a long bureaucratic process speeded up by our guide’s “cousin”, a border official. Pity those who must cross the border twice a day for work. Noting the interest shown, the guide kindly stopped by a tree-nesting colony of cattle egrets and glossy ibises, with more nesting storks nearby. The main excursion was through narrow streets combining a souk and residential properties, where (as in Rabat) there was a house bunting. There was another excellent meal, Moroccan style, and the group was steered into a store for a health & beauty products presentation and sale, a typical Moroccan trick (we don’t know if this was ‘official’), though entertaining.

Tétouan collage.

The first port of call in Spain was Málaga, where we’d chosen a tour to the Natural Park of El Torcal de Antequera. This karst landscape has impressive limestone columns and cliffs, eroded by water into interesting shapes. Unfortunately, it was all in cloud, some group members hadn’t taken on board the advice about robust footwear, and it was a little early in the year for much botanical interest. There was a tame rock bunting in the reserve centre’s car park. The sunshine appeared for our walk around the attractive small town of Antequera. We had some time in Málaga, where we encountered confiding monk parakeets. Lisbon’s parakeets, though, were ringed-necked.

El Torcal: left photo from Wikipedia, right as we saw it.

Monk parakeet, Málaga.

Compact Gibraltar was geographically ideal for a DIY excursion on foot, though it rained steadily and we were soaked to the skin. But we made it to the nature reserve on the top of the Rock, potentially botanically rich, at least: we passed Scilla peruviana, Spanish hedge-nettle, two-leaved gennaria orchids and more. We made it as far as the Barbary macaques and returned to the ship to dry out. Then the cloud lifted – but it was time to leave. That evening the ship moored at Cádiz from where Julie and I joined a group bussed to Jerez for a performance by a fine flamenco trio.

Casemates Square, Gibraltar, in the rain.

Happily, the next day was sunny for the smallest group we joined, on bikes around Cádiz. A highlight was the Roman Theatre only discovered in 1980. By the coastal Castle of Santa Catalina there were swallows, and a V-formation of birds coming in off the sea were glossy ibises. This fortress had an exhibition about a huge explosion of stored armaments in 1947, causing many deaths and thousands of injuries.

Bike tour in Cádiz.

Lisbon was the final port of call, where we took a general tour of city highlights.

There was no official on-board naturalist on Borealis, and I was unable to resist being the unofficial nature guide on occasions: wearing binoculars meant “You’re the bird man” was said a few times. I missed the company of Honeyguiders, though we were quick to make friends.

I was impressed by the activities available on Borealis, especially on days at sea. We attended lectures and several excellent evening shows. I joined a ukulele group and ‘singing for fun’ sessions, did three dance classes and played a lot of table tennis. The ukulele and singing groups put on a performance for other passengers during the final afternoon at sea.

Any down sides? One was being turned away from dinner for not wearing a jacket & tie when I’d forgotten it was a formal night. That time I changed, and after that we ate in the more informal dining area, which worked better for evening show times. I lost my wallet in Lisbon, presumably to a pickpocket, meaning time spent cancelling and re-ordering various cards. Lastly, it’s taken a couple of days to adjust to being on dry land with no swaying floors!

Would I go on another cruise? Potentially yes, if the dates and destinations are good. Though now there are several Honeyguide trips to look forward to …

*Well, first paying cruise. Tucked away on the old holiday reports web page is very old (1980s) Mediterranean cruise report from when I was a guest lecturer in a period when there was a collaboration between Swan Hellenic and the RSPB.

Chris Durdin, 1 March 2025

Brugmansia (angel's trumpets) in Rabat; Borealis in Casablanca; dragon tree in Cádiz.