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