I've managed to be in Norfolk at the right time of year for Swallowtail butterflies for the past three years, but on each occasion it has rained! This time the conditions looked more promising. I headed for Hickling Broad on Sunday full of hope with the sun shining, but unfortunately as soon as I stepped out of the car the cloud appeared and the sunshine disappeared. Nevertheless my hopes were buoyed by speaking to people exiting the reserve who had all seen at least one Swallowtail. I enjoyed a vigorous walk around the excellent Norfolk Wildlife Trust reserve and had very good views of Cuckoo, Marsh Harrier, Hobby, Reed Buntings, House Martins and several juvenile Willow Warblers, but you guessed it, not a single Swallowtail.
Monday looked promising sunshine wise so I set off to Catfield Fen for a change of scenery. This Butterfly Conservation reserve is quite remote with no signs to it and no facilities once you have arrived - my favourite kind of place if I'm honest. There is just the fen and the path leading through it and of course in times gone by this habitat would have been very common in this part of eastern England. The only other person I met was cutting reeds for thatch, though with an electric mower not an oldy worldy scythe! As I walked around the reserve Swallowtails started to flit past me but none seemed prepared to stop to pose for a photo. Although Milk Parsley, the larval foodplant, was plentiful I realised there actually weren't many suitable nectaring plants along the pathways for the adults such as Thistle and Ragged Robin. This is largely due to the hot and dry Spring we have had. The Swallowtails are so early that many of their nectar plants have yet to fully emerge, hopefully this will not have any negative impacts on the butterflies population. The reserve was alive with Dragonflies too and I had my first views of Norfolk Hawker, a species also confined to the Broads area. I finally managed some photos of one individual Swallowtail nectaring on Bramble near to the most dangerously squidgy part of the fen. Not the closeups I had been hoping for as I couldn't get close enough to bring the macro to bear so had to rely on the 300mm. I'm sure gardens near to Catfield Fen will currently be getting frequent visits from Swallowtails on the hunt for nectar. I've since found there are other reserves on the Broads with garden areas specifically to attract these spectacular yet approachable butterflies so I hope to get the shots I am really after soon.
The old mill at Catfield Fen with Norfolk Hawker inset
Four-spotted Chaser
Hairy Dragonfly
Azure Damselflies
Willow Warbler shot against white featureless sky so using manual settings to achieve correct exposure for the subject. Something those who have attended my courses will know all about!
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