At Kelling Heath (an SSSI) our brilliant guides managed to find us Mistle Thrush, a Stonechat and a Dartford Warbler, as well as a Kestrel. Steam trains were regularly passing through which was a touch surreal. Roydon Common is another Norfolk Wildlife Trust reserve, again managed with very great care, including using happy Dartmoor Ponies and British White Cattle to help do so, both pictured below. Neighbouring land has also been purchased to protect the main site, which comprises heathland, grassland, mire and wet woodland, from such destructive influences as agricultural run-off. It is a hugely important site for wildlife of all kinds, restored by the painstaking removal of conifer plantations and the location too of Bronze Age barrows. We saw Egyptian Geese, a Marsh Harrier and more.
Silver Birch, a tree of which I never tire:
A pair of Ash saplings, one of which is further along the seasonal shift to autumn:
A big, fat Fox Moth caterpillar:
A Labyrinth Spider’s web, with the tip of one leg just about visible:
Heather, being fractal:
And almost finally, surprisingly aromatic Bog Myrtle:
After this surfeit, expectations were low on returning to the garden at home, but a Great Spotted Woodpecker has returned to the feeder having been elsewhere for the summer, and there is a sudden, unexpected profusion of Michaelmas Daisies. Joy.
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