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