Norfolk Bank Holiday birding

Both myself and Gareth B. arranged to head over to Norfolk for a couple of days ahead of the August Bank Holiday and catch up with our good Norfolk-based birding mate Johnny. 

The days leading up to our arrival saw a good, classic east coast fall of Pied Flys, Redstarts, Wrynecks etc, so while the winds had switched to SW by Saturday 29/08, there would surely be some good birding to be enjoyed and certainly better birding than back home!

We decided to kick about the Cley area for the Saturday 29/08 at least, with waders, passerines and the sea all in play. We met up at Cley Beach car park and started at North Hide. There were a decent cluster of chats on the way over, with up to 10 Wheatear and 4 Whinchats along the fences, as well as several Yellow Wags.

North Scrape was pretty good with an adult Little Gull, at least 3 juv Curlew Sandpiper, juv Little Stint, juv Ruff, 2 Greenshank, 3 Common Sands, a good number of Dunlin, 1 juv LRP and a couple of Swift overhead- a solid start! 4 Grey Herons headed E offshore, as well as a/the adult Little Gull and a juv Med Gull. Singles of Sanderling and Pintail were on the nearby sea pool.

We then all agreed a stroll up Blakeney Point, to at least the Hood was worth it, to see if we could dig something out. Wryneck was reported in that general area, so that could at least prove a good sweetener if we couldn't find anything ourselves.

We were soon onto a couple of clusters of Wheatear, a Willow Warbler and a Chiffchaff. The big channel held a few waders including moulting Barwit & Grey Plover, as well as a calling Whimbrel, Ringed Plover and plenty of Redshank and Curlew. We had a good bash around the Hood, encountering a Whinchat and a lovely Tree Pipit that showed nicely for a brief while.

Soonafter, a/the Wryneck flew up out of some Sueda close to Johnny. After a couple of bang average flight views, I went on to get some decent views of it as it went about it's business, showing a surprising willingness to perch out in the open, rather than diving deep into the Sueda.

It was now getting a bit drizzly and so we decided to head back towards coastguards along the beach, rather than press on to the plantation. In a bit of light drizzle, this proved a nice move with a striking juvenile Caspian Gull on the beach, together with a juv Caspiany thing, most likely of mixed parentage. A couple of Black Terns were offshore too, joining the melee of gulls and Sandwich / Common Terns. The number of Common Terns in the area were unusually high, with apparently as many as 300 in recent days! 

We got back to the car and headed round to the visitor centre for a coffee before finishing the day in Dauke's Hide for the evening, overlooking Pat's Pool & Simmonds. It proved to be a very enjoyable hour and a half or so. Highlights included c13 Little Stint (1 adult, the rest juvs), 2 Wood Sandpiper, 1 Spotted Redshank, at least 2 juv Caspian Gulls and an adult Yellow-Legged Gull.

A fairly leisurely start on Sunday, having completed over 20,000 steps the previous day! It started well as I was finally able to enjoy my first ever Wasp Spider - this one had been hanging out in Johnny's Norwich garden for quite a while! Really hadn't anticipated how big a female Wasp Spider is - an absolute wopper of a spider and just stunning too. Even better than I expected!

We had plotted to head across to see the Black-Winged Kite, but in the end decided on heading back to Cley and giving the sea a go as the wind was anticpiated to swing a bit NW.

In reality the sea wasn't great - though nice to see both Bonxie and Arctic Skua, as well as a distant, possible Pom Skua. A few Gannets, a couple of flyby juv Caspian Gull, a few groups of Teal, Knot, Dunlin and Grey Heron was pretty much it! North Scrape produced 1 juv Curlew Sandpiper, 4+ juv Little Stint, 1 juv Wood Sandpiper, a distant Hobby, 9 Spoonbills flying into Pat's Pool, plenty of hirundines overhead and generally the same stuff as previous.

We wandered on to the East Bank and it was good to see a couple of very busy Wall butterflies. Arnold's Marsh held a few Spoonbill, but not not a lot else, however we did get good views of a couple of Hobby overhead. The walk back to the car added a kettle of 12 Buzzards drifting overhead. At this point Johnny headed home and Gareth and I popped round to the East Bank car park and Walsey Hills before we headed home. A few commoner species were added to the weekend list, but nothing spectacular. The sun did draw out a few butterlflies including several more Wall, Small Heath, Small Copper and Common Blue. Gareth also picked out a nice Willow Emerald Damselfly. That drew to a close a fun couple of days catching up and enjoying some rather more eventful birding than back home!! 

Dream duo

While long periods of drought are not really to be celebrated, the continuous hot weather has produced a lot of interest in terms of migrant butteflies and moths.

It's been one of the best years for Painted Ladies, Clouded Yellows and Hummingbird Hawkmoths I can remember. HBHMs in particular, have been numerous and we've been very lucky to have them in the garden daily!

Nationally, it's also been a very interesting year for rarer migrant butterflies. The Queen of Spain Fritillary has been a particular headline grabber, with a good spread of records across southern and eastern England. For many years I've longed to see one in the UK or abroad, mesmorised by it's beautiful metalic underwing pattern. 

Following a sprinkle of early summer sightings, it became apparent that by early August the offspring of any migrant egg-laying females, were now emerging, with a number of freshly hatched individuals in several locations.

One such place, was a wildflower field margin, close to the village of Monk Sherborne, Hampshire, that produced a remarkable double figure count! With myself and the family travelling down to the New Forest for a long weekend on 21/08, I just had to shoehorn this into our journey!!

Arriving at lunchtime, we parked up close to the footpath down to the site, a flower-rich field margin. I soon left the family to enjoy their picnic, whilst I headed off to hopefully enjoy something a bit special! The sun was a bit in and out of the cloud, however the main thing was it was warm, so would surely mean they would be active.

Ten minutes later, I reached the field, with a handful of people in view, hunching over photographing something - this looks promising! Before I'd even reached them, something bright orange flicked up in front of me, quickly resettling on some dead grass - an absolutely pristine Queen of Spain Fritillary - WOW! 

It was a truly enjoyable 45 or so minutes, (despite us encountering a very obnoxious local dog walker!) enjoying great views of approximately 5 QoS as they wizzed about, offen battling eachother and heading up some 50 feet into the sky before coming back down and going their separate ways. Despite the amazing spectacle, one thing began nagging me - the lack of an underwing view! When settled, all they wanted to do was spread their wings wide to absorb some sun. Thankfully, one finally obliged and I very slowly dropped to the floor to get some half decent shots of that outrageous underwing - get in!!

I could've lingered so much longer, but the time had come to drag myself away, albeit as a very chappy!

Could it get any better?? Possibly so!

Just one week later, during the afternoon of 28/08, I got the the exciting news that I had the opportunity to see a local Death's Head Hawkmoth!! For anyone interested in moths and nature in general, the Death's Head is quite simply the holy grail of moths. It is a creature of enormous size, in fact the biggest moth to visit our shores. They're pretty scarce too, with only a few recorded every year, although they literally can turn up anywhere. But to potentially see one in the land-locked midlands was just an opportunity not to be missed!

I headed over after work and before too long I managed to find it as described, roosting on a children's playground climbing frame of all places! It was pleasingly super pristine, suggesting an emergence not too far away, perhaps from a local's Potato patch!

I was immediately blown away by it's size - an absolute monster of a moth! The legs were super chunky, eyes massive for a moth and the colours exquisite, with even some subtle blue tones amongst the greys and black. I must've spent a good half an hour staring at it and taking photos, mesmerized by it's sheer aura! Unbelievable!

Heatwave insects

The record-breaking summer continued from July into August, with a drought officially declared locally, along with many other areas throughout south, central and eastern England.

As such, insects were generally my biggest focus, with the garden continuing to produce a great range of interest - it's been a joy! Further reward for the efforts to attract nature in. 

A string of garden firsts (pretty notable considering we've been there for 14 years now!) included Small Heath on 22/07 & 09/08 (the 25th butterfly species for the garden) and a surprise visit from 2 Willow Emerald Damselflies on 29/07, which is an excellent record for our small garden pond! Another appeared on 09/08, so they must be established somewhere nearby.

The fine weather and warm nights meant mothing was worth persisting with, producing three garden firsts - long overdue Jersey Tigers on 25/07 & 09/08, a Dewick's Plusia 26/07 and a migrant Vestal on 14/08. A good run of Gypsy Moths was also pretty cool; as was a brief visit from a monster Privet Hawkmoth caterpillar, a creature looking more suited to a rainforest than a humble garden in central England! 

It has been a remarkable summer for Hummingbird Hawkmoths - we've had them pretty much daily for the best part of 2 and a half months. I've become pretty blaise with them! It was also the very first time I've actually seen one settled!

The garden has predictatbly done well for butterflies with frequent Painted Ladies, many more Common Blue than would be normal, as well as a shortish visit from a Small Copper on 11/08 - plus all the more commoner, expected species.

Elsewhere, Clouded Yellows were beginning to pop up here and there. Was lucky to actually see a couple stationary at Hinton Airfield on 08/08! As well as the garden Jersey Tigers, the day before the first garden one, I also bumped into one sat in a hedge at Ardley Quarry on 24/07, which at that point was my first locally!

From a birding point of view, the settled weather was hugely condusive for anything particularly spectacular, however birds did start dribbling through with the likes of Yellow Wags, Green Sands, Snipe and Teal all beginning to appear - all classic early autumn movers!

Spot Flys began to appear, with a couple of family parties appearing at Ardley Quarry. I finally encountered a local Redstart, having strangely struggled for one in 2025 and so far this year. It did the honourable thing of sitting out sunning itself at Grimsbury Res on 09/08. My first local Black-Tailed Godwit of the year, a moulting adult, was at Boddington Res on 27/09 and a juvenile Ruff also hung around there for a few days.