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 Andricus curvator.

Galls on oak caused by the gall wasp Andricus 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