Banded Demoiselle

There has not been many of the bigger dragonflies around since the spring started. Today (Now summer) Eileen and I found some nice Banded Demoiselles at Ellingham Churchyard.

Rusty Plants

On a Sunday 6th June Eileen and I decided to visit the Ted Ellis Reserve at Wheatfen on the edge of the Norfolk Broads. Concidentally it was also the annual public Swallowtail butterfly day, so to avoid the crowds we decided to explore Surlingham Wood and the dykes and marsh away from the main event. As soon as we arrived beside the wood Eileen noticed several non flowering Southern Marsh Orchids Dactylorhiza praetermissa covered in a rust fungus, On closer inspection I found the leaves to be covered in tiny orange circles which bordered small pits where the spores would emerge. I immediately knew this to be the Arum rust Puccinia sessilis. This rust I had found on Wild Arum Arum maculatum in 2005 at Ditchingham but this was the first time I had seen it on Marsh Orchids. I then brought a voucher back for microscopic examination and they confirmed my find. My next step was to see how many East Norfolk records there were for P. sessilis through the British Mycological Society web site. There are only 64 records dating from 1866 to 2002 with only ten records for Orchids. The next step was to contact my professional Mycologist friends for more details and one correspondent informed me it was the first record since 1997 where it was recorded in Cambridgeshire. There have as far as I know been no further records published or otherwise. It was quite a find and although recorded in the past from Wheatfen I was pleased to add a 21st century record to Wheatfen where Ted taught me field mycology.

New Flowers

My 26 years of study in Lowestoft and only Lowestoft really produced 635 species of flower. Now moving to Beccles I have 400 plus in one year. Some are very common here such as Fox and Cubs ans Meadow Saxifrage. It is always refreshing to find new species that I never found in Lowestoft too.

Meadowlands

Meadowlands.
Eileen and I decided to visit the Suffolk Wildlife Trust reserve at Metfield Meadow, also known as Wink’s meadow. It is, along with many ancient meadows a true oasis in a desert of monocultured arable crops removed hedges and little if any field edges.
In the days of the Lowestoft Field Club we visited the meadow frequently to observe and record the flora. There are seven species of Orchid to be found there and the club’s visits found most over the years. It has been a late flowering year for many trees shrubs and plants so our visit in mid May was a bit too early for the real rarity there. The majority of the Orchids were the Anacamptis morio. Green winged Orchid. As we stood at one end of the meadow we could see hundreds of flower spikes. A systematic walk through the grassland produced a few small clumps of the uncommon Ophioglossum vulgare Adder’s Tongue. And Primula veris Cowslip. The main Buttercup in flower so far was the Ranunculus bulbosa. Bulbous Buttercup. Easily identified by the downturned sepals the only spring and early summer Buttercup with this feature. The Crateagus monogyna ssp nordica Hawthorn was only just in flower which is late as on the first day of May we found full flowering trees in Newmarket. Many song birds were breeding in the thick hedgerow which is mixed with many shrubs like Euonymous europeus Spindle, although not in flower. We will now plan another summer visit to see the rare orchid and the six other species recorded here.
It may be the most difficult reserve to find but it really is worth the visit.

Green winged Orchids

Visited a meadow north of Lowestoft to find the Green winged Orchids (Orchis morio) I was successful, finding one flowering spike and then we found some Twayblade (Listera ovata) leaves with the flowers just forming. we could not find any Adder's tongue Fern (Ophiglossum vulgatum)

Next we went to the Gunton wood known locally by some as "Gunton Gardens"
Here Eileen and I found the Wavy Bittercress (Cardmine flexuosa)which grows in damp habitats and in this case by a small water-filled ditch.
I know it from North Cove but nowhere else until this great find.
We then saw the Goldilocks Buttercup (Ranuculus auricomus) a native in the wood and there are actually two sites within.

Next stop was to see if we could find any Common spotted Orchids (Dactylorhiza fucshi)and we were lucky enough to find one flowering spike.

Devils dyke

Since joining a national botanical group I have visited many sites for plants all over East Anglia. My favorite is the Devils dyke in Cambridgeshire. on Saturday we found some good numbers of Pasque flower, a very big and pretty flower.

We also saw Dingy Skippers and lots of Brimstones.

Marshes at Beccles

This morning I walked Beccles Marshes, on the River Wall I heard five Cettis Warblers and plenty of Sedge Warblers that were all singing singularly in the middle of leafless Salix Caprea trees. There were four Brimstones along the river bank and more than 10 of Peacocks and Small Tortoiseshells. The first Common Whitethroat of the year (for me ) was heard too. The Tussilago farfara was also in seed heads now.
There was also plenty of Carex riparia along the river banks too.