We arrived at Snettisham an hour
before high tide and parked up on the sea bank overlooking The Wash. The tide
was coming in quickly – The Wash has the greatest tidal range of any east coast
estuary at 6.5m during spring tides – and there was a constant movement of
wading birds in front of us as the mudflats were covered by the incoming tide.
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| Swirling waders, Snettisham. |
There was a large flock of
oystercatchers out on the mudflats and several small groups of redshanks flew
over our heads to roost on the islands in the lagoons - the flooded remains of
old gravel workings. Although the high tide wasn’t high enough to fully cover
the the mudflats, we still enjoyed the spectacle of swirling flocks of
knots.  |
| Swirling waders, again. |
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| More swirling waders. |
There were also some large mixed
flocks of waders closer to us on the mudflats and we were able to pick out
dunlin, sanderling, knot, ringed plover, grey plover and bar-tailed godwit. A
mixed flock of common and Sandwich terns sat out on the mudflats along with an
adult Mediterranean gull in winter plumage.
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| Mixed wader flock, Snettisham. |
It wasn’t just birds we could see.
Scanning along the horizon we could pick out the grain silo in King's Lynn, the
chimneys of Sutton Bridge Power Station and the tower of St Botolph’s Church in
Boston, otherwise known as the Boston Stump. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite
clear enough to see the Big Wheel at Skegness Pleasure Beach. We could also see
the Outer Trial Bank, a remnant of a 1970s feasibility study into building a
barrage across The Wash to store fresh water.
We briefly crossed the causeway
across one of the pits to look for a special plant. Red hemp-nettle was
formerly a common arable wild flower in southern Britain but is now critically
endangered. In Norfolk, it is only found at Snettisham growing in areas of
disturbed shingle. We were fortunate to find several plants still in flower,
along with some very stunted wild carrot.
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| Red hemp-nettle. |
We then walked down the footpath to
Shore Hide where there were seven spotted redshanks on an island in the lagoon along
with several cormorants, little egret and a singe female pintail. On the
approach to the hide there was a single common blue butterfly.
After Snettisham we drove the short
distance to Dersingham Bog and ate our picnic lunches in the sunshine on the
grass next to the car park.
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| View over Dersingham Bog. |
After a short walk through the
fringing pine and birch woodland where a chiffchaff was singing, we stopped at
the John Denver Memorial Bench for a quick blast of Annie’s Song. It was a bit
of a mystery why there is a bench celebrating the life of John Denver at
Dersingham as there is no record of him ever having visited the site! However
I’m sure he would have approved as it gives a spectacular view across
Dersingham Bog National Nature Reserve, the largest intact lowland acid bog in
East Anglia. Although part of the Sandringham Estate, the reserve is managed by
Natural England.
Our target species here was the
black darter dragonfly, a specialist of acid bog habitats. Black darter is a
common species in northern upland moors and peat bogs but very restricted in
Norfolk where it is only found at a handful of sites.
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| Cranberry, Dersingham. |
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| Autumnal bog asphodel, Dersingham. |
We walked out into the bog on the
boardwalk where we saw the orangey-brown fruiting stems of bog asphodel, the
red berries of cranberry and round-leaved sundew. Black darter was however
conspicuous by its absence until we had almost completed our loop of the
boardwalk when Ann spotted two dragonflies on the boardwalk in front of her.
One was a male common darter but the other was our prize - a male black darter!
It gave good views to everyone before flying off and was lost to view. |
| Black darter. |
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| Common lizard, Dersingham. |
Birds were very much the supporting
cast at Dersingham. A family of buzzards called over some adjacent woodland and
on the bog itself were kestrel, green woodpecker and three stonechats.
As we carried on around the
heathland loop we saw a small copper butterfly nectaring on heather, hoof
fungus growing on a birch tree and several knopper oak galls on acorns.
Rob Lucking
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