Spectrum, a book by Tessa Needham

Honeyguider Tessa Needham, from Norwich, has written and self-published a novel set in the Norfolk Broads. Called Spectrum, the book is aimed at teenagers and above.

Bittern, one of several illustrations in the book by Melanie Boulton, who is also a volunteer at RSPB Strumpshaw Fen nature reserve.

Here’s the blurb about the book:

“We are at the end of the Swinging Sixties as four young Broads Rangers, collectively named Spectrum, roam the Norfolk Broads in their multi-coloured motorboats, helping tourists and locals alike enjoy the waterways in safety.

Is it pure coincidence if Christine Rogers and her three brothers share the same name as the mysterious instrumental group currently topping the record charts?

“Why does their father Sam, an accountant responsible for the financial affairs of several charitable organisations in Kent, make frequent journeys to the Defence Operations RAF Neatishead?

“And how come Tony Dale, the number one pop sensation of the era, is seen so often in Norfolk?

“The tranquillity of the reed beds, brimming over with wildlife, is truly under attack.

“Drug smuggling, arson and kidnapping are some of the twists and turns of our heroes' trials and tribulations.

“Yes, it is an adventure story, but if you want to discover more about the fantastic Norfolk Broads, this is the book for you.”

Spectrum is available from Amazon on Kindle or as a printed book via this link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Spectrum-Tessa-Needham/dp/1836153848

Via this link you can read the first two chapters as a taster.

Tessa Needham is a volunteer for the RSPB at Strumpshaw Fen and Sutton Fen nature reserves. At Sutton Fen, Tessa does transects to count swallowtail butterflies and bumblebees. She is also an active member of the Norfolk & Norwich Naturalists’ Society.

Chris Durdin

Spectrum - book cover.

Picos de Europa, another favourite destination

For four years in a row – 2022 to 2025 – we had fully booked Honeyguide groups in the Picos de Europa with the Pau Lucio - Chris Durdin double-act as guides. This year, 7 – 14 June 2026, Pau is returning to the Picos de Europa, and we have room for more in the group. We can add a second guide if there is lots of additional interest, though it won’t be me (Chris) as I was keen to return to the French Pyrenees in June.

Honeyguide leader Pau Lucio serves 'Picos scrumpy' at a café. (Photo from this collection: Honeyguide Facebook 2023.)

I thought I should write some notes about why our Picos de Europa holiday appeals to me: why I’ve been happy to return several times, as have several Honeyguiders. I think our Picos de Europa web page explains the area’s delights pretty well, though a blog gives an opportunity to explain it in a different way.

Hotel Tierra de la Reina, also popular with bikers.

Boca de Huérgano, a great place to stay. The Hotel Tierra de la Reina and Boca de Huérgano make a very good base. There are walks for pre-breakfast birdwatching in every direction, with plenty to see. Black redstarts are common and there is a white stork nest just around the corner (and others nearby). Rock sparrows are reliable in Boca de Huérgano – a bird that can be difficult to find elsewhere. There are usually common redstarts nesting in a village garden.

Juvenile rock sparrow, unusually in a tree, Boca de Huérgano (PL, June 2025).

A walk to the old Roman Bridge is a familiar routine, and we always see dippers on the river.

Roman bridge in Boca de Huérgano, with dipper (David Bennett).

Elena and her team at the Hotel Tierra de la Reina are very welcoming and we always enjoy the typically Spanish food. Explaining the choices is something that Pau does with great patience. This includes the near-daily explanation every year, on the subject of puddings (postres), that flan in Spain is like a crème caramel … 

There are midwife toads in Boca de Huérgano, calling by the hotel and elsewhere. We always hear them, and sometimes we get lucky and see one.

Midwife toad near the hotel.

A compact itinerary. The Picos de Europa is huge, and an area where too much travelling could be a risk. This holiday is very much Pau’s Picos: it’s an area of the western Picos that he’s been to many times and knows well. Pau also takes family holidays here, which speaks volumes, and he is always keen to return with another Honeyguide group. One site has my favourite fern: moonwort.

Moonwort, which grows near this mountain pool.

Cafés and picnic places. Our pre-picnic routine (as on other Spanish holidays, especially) is a café in a small town, and very nice they are too.

Bar in Valdeón: an impressive backdrop here, and there is a very good cheese shop nearby.

There are several conveniently located picnic spots, rural in character with good wildlife around us, where we eat the hotel’s generous picnics.

 

One of our regular picnic places.

Meadows. Pau reminded, while I was writing this blog, that flower-rich meadows are a holiday highlight for him, and as a result we see a rich range of butterflies (see below, photos mostly taken in meadows), day-flying moths and other wildlife. From a UK perspective, Honeyguiders comment that the meadows feel like we are stepping back in time to when our own countryside was more diverse.

Picos meadow with Honeyguiders.

The above meadow is what you might expect as mountain meadow. The second meadow photo, below, is rather different, and comes from an area west and slightly outside the Picos de Europa, with a more Iberian feel. For those who've been, it's where we usually see bee-eaters: the soil is sandy and ideal for bee-eaters' nests. It's at its best after a wet spring, leading to a carpet of flowers: white flax, thyme and horseshoe vetch, studded with orchids, sawfly orchids especially.

Dry meadow with white flax.

Fuente Dé. Our one longer trip is to Fuente Dé, where we take a cable car as a practical way to see the landscape and wildlife of the high tops. It’s a bit of a journey and involves a queue to ascend in a cable car, which may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s done for good reason. There is always a consensus in our groups that the alpine experience makes it a very memorable day. 

Group at Fuente Dé, June 2025.

The flowers are lovely: compact, low-growing species like gentians and alpine toadflax. Alpine choughs are guaranteed and most years we find snowfinches, wallcreeper (that may take a little patience), bearded vulture and alpine accentor. At some stage we expect to find chamois, often a family party on a snow patch.

Fuente Dé alpine flowers collage. Check the IDs on Honeyguide Facebook 2025.

Wonderful butterflies. We saw 59 species of butterflies in 2025, 62 in 2024 … you get the picture. Yet the list varies every year, and we keep adding to the master checklist: for example, there were some early species in 2025, which was weather related. Choosing what butterflies to illustrate in this blog is tricky, hence the collage. 

Butterfly collage, June 2023. IDs here in our Honeyguide Facebook 2024 collection.

Conservation: this holiday supports Asociación Zerynthia, a small Spanish NGO running projects to study and conserve butterflies. Pau is involved with Asociación Zerynthia, including in a project in his home area of Valencia region, and it’s nice to have that personal connection. 

More information about the Picos de Europa via the Picos de Europa web page, from where there are links to sets of photos and holiday reports.

Chris Durdin

Winter at Thorpe Marshes

Winter can have a stark beauty at Thorpe Marshes, Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s nature reserve on the eastern edge of Norwich. Sunny days are best for enjoying the subdued colours. These are mostly browns and greens ... apart from that added magic when it snows, as it did in early January.

Thorpe Marshes in snow, 11 January 2026, from the railway bridge.

That cold spell brought an influx of ducks onto the unfrozen parts of St Andrews Broad: about 50 teals, 25 shovelers and, unusually, six wigeons. Having open water is a valuable part of the mix at Thorpe Marshes: when the marshes are relatively quiet, there are usually ducks on the gravel pit. Numbers are highest in the early part of the year, especially tufted ducks – a diving duck – and gadwalls, which are dabbling ducks.

Tufted ducks, pochards and gadwalls on St Andrews Broad  (Derek Longe).

Elsewhere on the marsh, getting out may be more about fresh air and exercise than seeing lots of wildlife. However, there are birds you can hear, even if they stay hidden. Several water rails overwinter, a mostly secretive bird but with a range of calls, the most remarkable of which sounds like a squealing piglet.

Winter view at Thorpe Marshes, 16 December 2025.

Cetti’s warblers sing their explosive song from cover, especially on bright days. Two stonechats are often on show, perching on vegetation tops, especially on sunny days. This winter a chiffchaff – sometimes more than one – is a surprising regular bird, as they are best known as migrants. It helps if you know its soft contact call.

I lead NWT’s monthly guided walks at Thorpe Marshes, and on quiet winter days it’s good to know where to find wildlife that doesn’t fly or sing. In general, marshes are not the best place for finding fungi, but happily there are several reliable species on various bits of dead wood on the nature reserve.

Blushing bracket: on the left with 'blush' colouring; right as it looks now.

Near the railway bridge, a willow tree has a blushing bracket fungus. The photo on the right shows it as it looks now: in the autumn it was redder in colour, hence the name.

Jelly ear fungi.

Close to the tidal flap, a dead elder always has jelly ear fungi. How they look depends on the weather. When dry, the fungi are black and shrivelled. The photo is after a damp spell, and you can see its ear-like form.

King Alfred's cakes fungi.

On a dead ash stump by the riverside path, there are several weird black lumps. These are called King Alfred’s cakes. You couldn’t call them pretty, but it’s a great descriptive name. We all know the story of King Alfred burning cakes. Whether or not that’s true, you can see that it’s an apt name.

Yellow brain fungi.

An intriguing winter fungus is yellow brain. It’s small, so you need sharp eyes to see its delightfully revolting, though colourful, form.

Red-necked grebe, January 2026 (Drew Lyness).

Looking back on 2025, there were two stand-out wildlife highlights at Thorpe Marshes. In January, a red-necked grebe spent three days on the gravel pit, before a longer stay at Whitlingham Country Park. It earned itself a cover picture in February 2025’s Just Thorpe St Andrew magazine.

Scarce chaser dragonflies, 15 June 2025.

Scarce chaser dragonfly was a new colonist in June. Previously there were a few records, but they were absent as a breeding species. Scarce chasers have a limited distribution in the UK, hence their name, though this includes several Broadland nature reserves, and to reach Thorpe Marshes they haven’t had to come far, as there are good numbers at the RSPB’s Strumpshaw Fen nature reserve a few miles to the east in the Yare Valley. On 17 June, on a guided walk, we counted nine male scarce chasers and one female. The photo shows a mating pair of scarce chasers, proof of breeding, of course. 

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.

More information about Thorpe Marshes, including recent sightings, on www.honeyguide.co.uk/thorpemarshes.htm

News, wildlife highlights, events and more - straight to your inbox from Norfolk Wildlife Trust. Turn your inbox wild today: norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk/SignUp

Chris Durdin, 11 January 2026

This blog was first written as an article for Just Thorpe St Andrew.

Crete – a favourite destination

While away with groups, I am often asked if I have a favourite holiday. My answer is often that it’s the one I’m on now – plus Crete. Here are some reasons why Crete is a favourite destination.

Wonderful flowers. More than 20 species of orchid is routine. Many of these are at our regular site that is orchid heaven, familiarly known as Spili Bumps. The supporting cast is a strong one, including Cretan cyclamens, statuesque giant fennels, wild gladioli, tulips and distinctive flowers endemic to Crete such as Cretan wall lettuce, Cretan ebony and Cretan skullcap.

Crete orchid collage, all from April 2025.
Top row: hill orchid Orchis collina, bumblebee orchid, Italian (or naked) man orchids at Spili Bumps.
Bottom row: monkey orchid, few-flowered orchid Orchis pauciflora.

It’s not just us. Discovering wild flowers on Crete is described in a book called Unforgettable things to do before you die. Crete also features in Wildflower Wonders of the World by the late Bob Gibbons. His book of favourite flowery places has photos from the Kedros Foothills (= Spili Bumps) and Omalós Plateau – both places that we visit.

Tulips - Tulipa bakeri - on Omalós plateau.

Bird migration. Of course there are reliable resident birds on Crete, such as griffon vultures in Kourtaliótiko and Kotsiphou Gorges. We’ve seen a few rarities over the years: semi-collared flycatcher (Crete 2017), blue-cheeked bee-eater Crete 2022) and Temminck’s stint (Crete 2024).

Left: semi-collared flycatcher (digi-scoped). Right, top: squacco heron (Dawn Stevens). Right, bottom: blue-cheeked bee-eater (Rob Lucking).

But it’s the routine – if unpredictable – migrants that mostly come to mind. Flights of egrets over the sea; a sudden flock of purple herons rising from a marsh; a mixture of waders, always including wood sandpipers and often including marsh sandpiper; a squacco heron tucked into a river or small marsh.

Wood sandpipers plus a black-winged stilt.

People, tavernas and food

The friendly, family-run Hotel Sofia in Plakias is always a joy to return to. Nice breakfasts and DIY picnics are routine, and Vagelis is great and finding solutions to problems. Last time around it was simply the right hex key for a loose minibus door. Other times it’s included arranging for a new tyre to come from Athens, and help in a medical emergency.

A typical Honeyguide group - this one was in April 2025 - at Sofia Hotel.

Evening meals in tavernas a short distance walk from Hotel Sofia are part of the routine and the fun. These have their own cast of characters. One is Takis at Muses Taverna, who still remembers – and apologies for – one meal that arrived late back in 2015. Another is Stelios in Apanemo Taverna, who looks like he should star in a pirate movie, then provides us all with garlic bread starters on the house followed by generous and tasty main meals.

Plakias, April 2025.

Honeyguide know-how: after many groups over the years – 29 so far and looking forward to the 30^th – we know our itinerary well. That’s not the same as knowing Crete well – it’s a big island. Curiously there are no local guides on Crete, so it’s down to in-house expertise. Yet despite many visits, Rob Macklin and I both love returning, which tells its own story. 

Butterflies too. Top: Lulworth skipper and swallowtail. Bottom: eastern dappled white and southern speckled wood. The swallowtail and speckled wood are by Julian Lawrence.

Conservation: this holiday supports Hellenic Ornithological Society (HOS, BirdLife Greece). We sent £830 in 2025, raised by the holiday, taking our running total of donations to HOS since our first Crete group in 1995 to £17,155.

More information about Crete via the Honeyguide Crete web page, from where there are links to other special Crete web pages, sets of photos and holiday reports. No single supplement on this holiday!

Chris Durdin

A record conservation donation from Honeyguide in 2025

In November 2025, Honeyguide made our biggest single donation ever to a conservation project overseas. That donation, of £5,920, went to the current campaign by SPEA (BirdLife Portugal) to create a nationwide network of bird sanctuaries.

Honeyguide group at the 'safe havens project' site, 31 October 2025, looking into a pond. The owner is on our left (photo by Hugo Sampaio). 

Honeyguide’s autumn group in Algarve & Alentejo included a visit to a SPEA ‘safe haven’ a short drive from our hotel in Alte, where it was a pleasure to meet the landowner and hear his enthusiasm for wildlife. 

This donation – €6,578.67 when received by SPEA in Portugal – was unusually high. Each group member’s conservation contribution was supplemented by Gift Aid, for those eligible, our usual routine. There was an additional donation+ Gift Aid. The major boost came from a legacy of £5,000 left to the Honeyguide Wildlife Charitable Trust by the late John Durdin.

The Trust’s trustees felt that this project brings tangible benefits to wildlife through SPEA, with which we have a longstanding link: the total donated to SPEA since 2005 now totals £13,088.

Honeyguide group at Budens Marsh, Algarve (Hugo Sampaio).

Total donations in 2025 were £9,800 (£5,705 in 2024, £4,530 in 2023), bringing the total for all conservation contributions through Honeyguide since 1991 to £165,317.

Our donations in 2025 were as follows:

·    March, Morocco: £5705 to GREPOM (BirdLife Morocco) towards protection of the endangered northern bald ibis.

Northern bald ibis, north of Agadir, helped by our group in March via GREPOM (Mervin Nethercoat).

·   March, Extremadura: £220 sent to SEO (BirdLife Spain) in Extremadura.

·   April, Crete: £830 sent to Hellenic Ornithological Society (HOS, BirdLife Greece).

·   April, Menorca: £560 sent to The Grup Balear d'Ornitologia i Defensa de la Naturalesa (GOB – the Balearic Ornithological Group)

·   April/May, Spanish Pyrenees: £590 sent to SEO Aragón (BirdLife Spain).

·   May: South of Salamanca, £200 to SEO (BirdLife Spain) in Salamanca region towards protecting crop-nesting harriers.

·   June, Picos de Europa: £880 sent to Zerynthia, a butterfly conservation NGO in Spain.

Duke of Burgundy, Picos de Europa, June 2025. Our donation supported butterfly NGO Zerynthia.

·   November, Algarve & Alentejo: £9800 to SPEA in Portugal, as described above.

Part of the ethos of Honeyguide Wildlife Holidays has always been to contribute to the protection of the wildlife that we enjoy, put into effect by donations to conservation projects and organisations linked to our activities. These donations were all through the Honeyguide Wildlife Charitable Trust, through which we can claim Gift Aid and increase our charitable activity.

The £5,705 donated this year brings the running total for all donations to £165,317 since 1991. Total donations in 2025 were £9,800 (£5,705 in 2024, £4,530 in 2023). 

Chris Durdin 

September at NWT Thorpe Marshes

The warm days of summer giving way to the cooler breezes of autumn, a vibrant palette of autumn colours … this is a typical description of September. There is some truth in this, though visually early September at NWT Thorpe Marshes is more a continuation of high summer’s flowering peak. 

September is certainly a good month for insects – and is the month for ivy bees, which time their emergence to feed on flowering ivy. Ivy bee is also known as ivy mining bee, and though it’s defined as a solitary bee, they ‘mine’ in aggregations. They like sandy ground, which can include lawns. Ivy bee is such a familiar part of the September scene that it’s easy to forget that it was first recorded in the UK as recently as 2001, reaching Norfolk by 2014.

Ivy bee. Ivy in Whitlingham Lane, the approach to Thorpe Marshes, can be a good place to see these.

September is an ideal time to see three species of odonata – dragonflies and damselflies – namely migrant hawker, common darter (both dragonflies) and the willow emerald damselfly.

Migrant hawkers were once called scarce hawkers, reflecting their former rarity. Now, not only are they an established breeding species in the UK, these hawkers’ strong flight means they can be seen far from water. As the British Dragonfly Society notes, this species has increased its range dramatically northwards in recent decades, linked to climate change. A typical view is a glimpsed, fast-flying and mostly blue patterned dragonfly, at least for a male. If you’re lucky they will land and ‘hang’ on vegetation when they can be quite approachable. Look out for a ‘golf tee’ mark on the thorax – which is also a feature of browner females.

Migrant hawker (male).

A red dragonfly in September is likely to be a common darter, and ‘common’ really is apt. The older they are, the redder they look – and that also goes for female common darters. A feature of this species in autumn is that they absorb warmth from wooden structures, so if you see a dragonfly on a bench or a fence it’ll almost certainly be a common darter – especially so in the cooler months of October and November.

Common darter, soaking up some warmth from a wooden rail.

Common darter.

Willow emeralds, it’s fair to say, are a rather special damselfly. They are in a small group of damsels called spreadwings, the name describing how the wings are held, in contrast to most other damselflies where the wings are held roughly parallel to the body. Many emerge as adults in August, though September is their peak month. The best place to look for them is on the edge of bushes or plants overhanging permanent open water, such as a ditch at Thorpe Marshes. Look very carefully on a thin branch over water, often a willow, and you might see a female doing what is special to this species: they scratch a small groove and lay their eggs in the bark of waterside trees, not under water like most damselflies. Like the migrant hawker, the willow emerald’s occurrence here is driven by climate change: their spread across England this century has been sensational.

Willow emerald damselfly, in characteristic 'spreadwing' pose.

News, wildlife highlights, events and more - straight to your inbox from Norfolk Wildlife Trust. Turn your inbox wild today: norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk/SignUp 

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. This blog was first written as an article for Just Thorpe St Andrew. 

Golden anniversary for Norwich barbershop singers

Fine City Chorus tuning up for 50th birthday concert 

Norwich’s male barbershoppers, Fine City Chorus, are celebrating the group’s 50^th birthday this year. Based at Lionwood School in Thorpe Hamlet, Fine City Chorus, also known as Norwich Barbershop Harmony Club, is a vibrant a cappella group specialising in four-part close harmony arrangements. 

They perform a diverse repertoire of popular British and American music, ranging from classic hits to contemporary favourites. The chorus actively participates in various events, including concerts, festivals, and charity fundraisers, both locally and further afield.

Fine City Chorus on stage in Bournemouth in May 2025 at this year's barbershop convention. Fine City Chorus received its highest score ever from the judges.

The chorus has several members from Thorpe St Andrew, including chairman Bob Ledwidge and me, writes Chris Durdin, and is always eager to welcome new members. It often hosts ‘Come and Sing’ events to introduce people to the joys of barbershop harmony.

The club started in 1975 as an evening class in Norwich for men who wanted to learn to sing in the barbershop style. A local music teacher, Rosemary Kimmins, was asked to take it, and, to understand more about this kind of harmony singing, she went to the US airbase at Mildenhall, where the American servicemen organised a sing-out session specially for her. She was inspired, and she quickly grew the Norwich barbershop singers from an initial 8 to 25 singers. Jeff Jordan was one of the original group and is still singing with Fine City Chorus.

Flashback: this photo from 1986 shows then chorus director Doug Clark and the full chorus. Two of the current chorus, Ken Mays and Chris Durdin, are pictured. Ken is in the back row, second from right: Chris is in the middle row, also second from right.

The name ‘Fine City Chorus’ was chosen by the members in the 1990s, reflecting the group's connection to Norwich. Over the years, the chorus has seen the formation of several successful quartets.

One notable achievement was in 2005 when Fine City Chorus was ‘Small Chorus Champions’ at the British Association of Barbershop Singers (BABS) annual convention. That’s unlikely to happen again, for a good reason as membership has grown.

The chorus appointed Carol Logan as their Chorus Director in 2009, a role she continues to fulfil, guiding the chorus to further musical development. In 2025 Fine City Chorus achieved its highest-ever score from the judges at the BABS Convention in Bournemouth with a total of 67%. There were 27 competing choruses this year and Fine City Chorus was placed 13th.  

Taking part in barbershop conventions is a way of continuing to improve. Fine City Chorus will attend next year’s convention in Harrogate and is currently considering going to a barbershop convention in Spain in 2027.

To mark the 50th anniversary, Fine City Chorus is staging a special concert at the Assembly House in the city on Sunday 28 September.

Together with our sibling mixed chorus Mosaic and special guests, the concert will celebrate 50 years of popular music in a cappella four-part close harmony: from the Everly Brothers and Beach Boys via Les Misérables, Monty Python, Queen and Sting to Ed Sheeran and the 21^st century! All the proceeds will be going to FCC’s charity this year, Emmaus Norfolk and Waveney.

Promotional poster for 50^th anniversary concert, 28 September 2025.

This blog was first written as an article for Just Thorpe St Andrew and draws on Fine City Chorus's history page.

Chris Durdin www.finecitychorus.org.uk