Slurp...

Off to the Norfolk Broads again today - the last trip to take Chris to his survey sites. On the way we were held up for 45 minutes by a three car crash at East Winch, but this ended up being rather fortuitous, as the Reserve Manager at Martham Broad was at West Somerton as we arrived, unloading a quantity of cut sedge from the boat into a trailer. So Chris ended up hitching a ride to his site, rather atmospheric as the sea fret rolled in from the North Sea. Pete and I had to walk...

Eventually the sun burnt off the mist and it turned rather warm, though not unpleasantly so. Pete and Chris visited Hickling Broad in the afternoon while I looked after Rosie (no dogs allowed on the reserve), and then we all headed off to the coast at Horsey Gap for a bit of relaxation before the return journey. The mist was still there for a while, but eventually cleared to glorious evening sunshine.

As we went onto the dunes the first thing we saw was a grass eggar flying, which Chris managed to catch so that we could have a closer look. There were plenty of dark-green fritillaries flying, and in a sheltered dune slack, clouds of small skippers were nectaring on the tufted vetch. While I was photographing them, a Forester moth flew onto the same piece of vetch. This metallic green moth is a close relative of the burnet moths. It's fairly local, the caterpillars feeding on sheep's sorrel, and this was the first that I'd ever seen - a wonderful way to end a long day out.