Norfolk.....

A trip today,with Chris and Colin to a few sites in the Norfolk Broadland area resulted in us having a pretty good time!.The first port of call was the excellent Strumpshaw Fen,where our targets were to get Chris his first Norfolk Hawker and Swallowtail.Both were found easily after a bit of usefull info from Mr Eades.The first Norfolk Hawker was seen along a track down the side of some adjacent waterworks near to the reserve entrance and showed very well,with the waterworks also holding a singing male Grey Wagtail.We carried on down this track coming to the garden we had been told about to see Swallowtail,after a short wait we saw our first,albeit briefly,but better was to come!,when we all walked a short distance past the garden a Swallowtail flew in and landed at our feet on a Meadow Buttercup and posed for photo's,talk about jammy!!.Also in this area Adi found a female Cochchafer,which we all got piccies of and another Norfolk Hawker was watched hunting.Also,while walking around the reserve we enjoyed the explosive Cetti's Warblers,only getting frustratingly brief views of them,a couple of Chinese-water Deer,a distant hunting Barn Owl and several Marsh Harriers,which included a food pass by one pair,excellent stuff!!.So onto the next site,the fantastic How Hill.Here we observed more of the same as Strumpshaw,but got much better views of Norfolk Hawker,4 Swallowtail of which 2 flew across the grassy area near to the car park,at least 3 Cetti's Warbler,a couple more of the ubiquitous Marsh Harriers and some interesting plants which included Milk Parsley and Water Soldier,the 2 plants connected with the reserves 2 speciality species.This reserve is an absolute gem,with a good variety of habitats!.
 Our last place of visit,was another fenland reserve,Catfield Fen,here we enjoyed more of the same species as the other reserve's but also added Hobby and Grasshopper Warbler to the bird list for the day.So after a long 8+ hours in the field,it was time to make our journey home,but what a fantastic day we had! and a big thanks again to Chris for driving.