Breckland Heaths and Wetlands (Day Trip)

Naturetrek Tour Report 26th July 2020

Top left: Smooth Rupturewort Bottom left: Great Thyme Right: Six-spot Burnet Moths

Tour report & images by Mike Crewe.

Naturetrek Mingledown Barn Wolf's Lane Chawton Alton Hampshire GU34 3HJ UK T: +44 (0)1962 733051 E: [email protected] W: www.naturetrek.co.uk

Tour Report Breckland Heaths and Wetlands (Day Trip)

Tour participants: Mike Crewe (tour leader) with 5 Naturetrek clients.

Sunday 26th July (Day Trip)

Breckland’s big skies and big landscapes put on a great show today, with excellent weather and some great wildlife watching. We started at Cranwich, where the colourful displays of flowers attracted plenty of butterflies and we strained to get a look at the antennal tips on the Small Skippers (it was that sort of a day!). Small Coppers and Common Blues were plentiful and all the local Breckland plants to be found here fell into place. The tiny flowers of both Proliferous Pink and Spanish Catchfly were studied, as well as the strangely green flowers of Sand Lucerne. Walking across some open, Breckland grass heath, we found flowering patches of Large Thyme, Purple Milk-vetch and the less showy (but wonderfully named) Purple-stem Cat’s-tail. Six-spot Burnet moths were so common they even caught the eye of the dog walkers today! In the bird line, a couple of Common Buzzards were sat up nicely in a dead tree and three Grey Wagtails dropped in for a brief spell.

We took a bonus excursion today to a site that had been checked very briefly just this morning and which was to be a special treat for the group. For here, we were to almost pass out at the wonderous sight of Smooth Rupturewort – what a plant!! I think it’s fair to say that we all came away enraptured! But this spot also provided the most remarkable display of wild flowers as great sheets of Field Scabious, Slender and Greater Knapweed, Wild Mignonette, Kidney-vetch, Common Agrimony and many more painted the landscape. Here, too, we also chance across a singing Grasshopper Warbler which was a real bonus. Time was racing away and we headed to Santon Downham for lunch, followed by a walk out to some acid heath, where we could appreciate the tougher growing conditions and resulting smaller set of plant species that grow here. But there were some nice treats here, nevertheless, including Perennial Knawel of the endemic subspecies, prostratus (Now looking spectacular after having seen the rupturewort first!), Mottled Grasshopper and – very briefly – some Green-eyed Flower Bees.

At our final stop at Thompson Common, we enjoyed a nice walk through the belt of Oak-Ash woods with a lovely understory of Holly and Bird Cherry and out to the famous pingos. The ponds all had differing amounts of water in, but soon we were enjoying a particularly wet pond that held flowering Greater Bladderwort, Fine- leaved Water-dropwort and plenty of both Common and Robust Spreadwings around the margins. Blue Emperor, Brown Hawker and tandem pairs of Ruddy Darters were also around and made a great finale to a wonderful day, spent with wonderful company.

Receive our e-newsletter

Join the Naturetrek e-mailing list and be the first to hear about new tours, additional departures and new dates, tour reports and special offers. Visit www.naturetrek.co.uk to sign up.

Breckland Heaths and Wetlands (Day Trip) Tour Report

Social Media

We’re social! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and be the first to hear about the launch of new tours, offers and exciting sightings and photos from our recently returned holidays.

Checklists

Plants – a selection of Breckland specialities and key habitat species that we studied Common Bracken Pteridium aquilinum Hart’s-tongue Asplenium scolopendrium Broad Buckler Fern Dryopteris dilatata Common Water-plantain Alisma plantago-aquatica Broad-leaved Pondweed Potamogeton natans Branched Bur-reed Sparganium erectum Common Bulrush Typha latifolia Common Spike-rush Eleocharis palustris Greater Tussock Sedge Carex paniculata Common Tufted Sedge Carex elata Yellow Oat-grass Trisetum flavescens Common Bent Agrostis capillaris Smaller Cat's-tail Phleum bertolonii Purple-stem Cat's-tail Phleum phleoides Creeping Soft-grass Holcus mollis Long-headed Poppy Papaver dubium Biting Stonecrop Sedum acre Purple Milk-vetch Astragalus danicus Common Kidney Vetch Anthyllis vulneraria Common Bird's-foot-trefoil Lotus corniculatus Tufted Vetch Vicia cracca Common Restharrow Ononis repens White Melilot Melilotus albus Black Medick Medicago lupulina Lucerne Medicago sativa Sand Lucerne Medicago sativa nothosp. varia Hop Trefoil Trifolium campestre Hare’s-foot Clover Trifolium arvense Common Broom Cytisus scoparius European Bird Cherry Prunus padus Common Raspberry Rubus idaeus Silverweed Argentina anserina Hoary Cinquefoil Potentilla argentea Common Agrimony Agrimonia eupatoria Perforate St John's-wort Hypericum perforatum Common Stork's-bill Erodium cicutarium Rosebay Willowherb Chamerion angustifolium

Breckland Heaths and Wetlands (Day Trip) Tour Report

Common [Wild] Mignonette Reseda lutea Hairy Rock-cress Arabis hirsuta Amphibious Bistort Persicaria amphibia Sheep’s Sorrel Rumex acetosella Thyme-leaved Sandwort Arenaria serpyllifolia Breckland Perennial Knawel Scleranthus perennis subsp. prostratus Smooth Rupturewort Herniaria glabra Spanish Catchfly Silene otites Proliferous Pink Petrorhagia prolifera Water-violet Hottonia palustris Common Heather Calluna vulgaris Lady’s Bedstraw Galium verum Heath Bedstraw Galium saxatile Common Centaury Centaurium erythraea Common Viper’s-bugloss Echium vulgare Dark Mullein Verbascum nigrum Great Mullein Verbascum thapsus Greater Bladderwort Utricularia vulgaris Wood Sage Teucrium scorodonia Water Mint Mentha aquatica Large Thyme Thymus pulegioides Wild Marjoram Origanum vulgare Wild Basil Clinopodium vulgare Common Selfheal Prunella vulgaris Hedge Woundwort Stachys sylvatica Confused Eyebright Euphrasia confusa European Holly Ilex aquifolium Greater Knapweed Centaurea scabiosa Slender Knapweed Centaurea debeauxii Rough Hawkbit Leontodon hispidus Smooth Hawk’s-beard Crepis capillaris Common Mouse-ear-hawkweed Pilosella officinarum European Yarrow Achillea millefolium Common Ragwort Jacobaea vulgaris Hemp-agrimony Eupatorium cannabinum Common Honeysuckle Lonicera periclymenum Tubular Water-dropwort Oenanthe fistulosa Field Scabious Knautia arvensis Fine-leaved Water-dropwort Oenanthe aquatica Common Parsnip Pastinaca sativa Common Hogweed Heracleum sphondylium

Birds Common Buzzard Buteo buteo Moorhen Gallinula chloropus Common Swift Apus apus Eurasian Magpie Pica pica Carrion Crow Corvus corone Coal Tit Periparus ater Grasshopper Warbler Locustella naevia Common Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita Grey Wagtail Motacilla cinerea Eurasian Bullfinch Pyrrhula pyrrhula Eurasian Siskin Spinus spinus Yellowhammer Emberiza citronella

Tour Report Breckland Heaths and Wetlands (Day Trip)

Dragonflies & Damselflies Common Spreadwing Lestes sponsa Robust Spreadwing Lestes dryas Common Bluet Enallagma cyathigerum Blue Emperor Anax imperator Brown Hawker Aeshna grandis Blue Hawker Aeshna cyanea Ruddy Darter Sympetrum sanguineum

Butterflies Small Skipper Thymelicus sylvestris Essex Skipper Thymelicus lineola Large White Pieris brassicae Small White Pieris rapae Green-veined White Pieris napi Brimstone Gonepteryx rhamni Ringlet Aphantopus hyperantus Meadow Brown Maniola jurtina Gatekeeper Pyronia tithonus Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta Peacock Aglais io Comma Polygonia c-album Purple Hairstreak Favonius quercus Small Copper Lycaena phlaeas Holly Blue Celastrina argiolus Common Blue Polyommatus icarus