An East Anglian Assortment

Here follows a rather large selection of photos from a couple of  trips to East Anglia in the summer once in late June and again in early September. Mostly wild flowers, obviously but a good selection of other stuff too.

JUNE

 

First stop Cambridgeshire, where we found both Sulphur Clover and Crested Cow-wheat on a protected road verge

  Sulphur Clover - Trifolium ochroleucon

 

Crested Cow-wheat - Melampyrum cristatum

Then on to North Norfolk where as well as some more nice wild flowers I got to see my first ever Broad-bordered Bee Hawk-moths, one of my highlights of the year, especially as I managed to get some nice photos of them in flight. 

Field Mouse-ear - Cerastium arvense

Sand Catchfly - Silene conica

 

Small Flowered Catchfly - Silene gallica 

I've only seen this in Cornwall before and then it was only in white, at this site it grows in many shades of pink. 

 

Yarrow Broomrape - Orobanche purpurea 

Definitely the best Broomrape I've seen, such an attractive colour. 

Broad-bordered Bee Hawk-moth - Hemaris fuciformis.

The next day was spent in Broadland where I saw many marshland species of wild flower, some of which were new for me and even though it was very late in the season for them a few Swallowtails too! I failed to get any photos of Norfolk Hawker. Do they ever land!! I did get some candid shots of a female Black-tailed Skimmer eating a Notch-horned Cleg Fly. One less of those ******* is fine by me!!

Black-tailed Skimmer - Orthetrum cancellatum

Cowbane - Cicuta virosa

Marsh Cinquefoil - Comarum palustre  

 Marsh Pea - Lathyrus palustris

 Marsh Stitchwort- Stellaria palustris

 and Marsh Fern - Thelypteris palustris

 Stingless Nettle or Fen Nettle - Urtica dioica subsp. galeopsifolia 

Swallowtail - Papilio machaon ssp. britannicus

We spent the next day in the Brecks where we saw ...

 

Tower Mustard - Arabis glabra

 Sickle Medick - Medicago sativa ssp falcata 

Sand Lucerne - Medicago sativa subsp. varia 

Bur Medick - Medicago minima

 Small Nightshade or Cut-leaved Nightshade - Solanum triflorum

Henbit Dead-nettle - Lamium amplexicaule

Fine-leaved Sandwort - Minuartia hybrida

Spring Vetch - Vicia lathyroides

Purple Milk-vetch - Astragalus danicus 

Small Cudweed -Filago minima

with Perennial Knawel 

Perennial Knawel  - Scleranthus perennis

Female Clouded Buff - Diacrisia sannio

 

Brimstone - Gonepteryx rhamni

The caterpillar hides from predators by mimicking the midrib of the leaf it's feeding on. 

Small Tortoiseshell - Aglais urticae

Always worth a photo!

And finally out of my bedroom window of the Barton Mills Travel lodge....

  A doe Muntjac  - Muntiacus reevesi

The SX50 did quite a good job considering it was almost dark.

SEPTEMBER 

In a second visit to the region in September we were mainly looking for fungi but there were still a few wildflowers to be seen with one being exceptionally rare in the UK. The fungi we were looking for was Sandy Stiltball, which we found on a roadside reserve in Norwich and whilst checking likely verges in Suffolk we were really fortunate to find Pepperpot Earthstar too! This can only be found at this one site in the UK outside of the Channel Islands. Photos of both can be seen in a previous post HERE. But I'll put a couple on here too.

Sandy Stiltball - Battarrea phalloides 

Pepperpot Earthstar - Myriostoma coliforme

Lesser Calamint -  Clinopodium calamintha 

And finally in Essex we got to see the extremely rare Annual Sea-purslane or Pedunculate Sea-purslane. We were fortunate to meet the landowner and very fortunate that he agreed to let us see it!

Pedunculate Sea-purslane - Atriplex pedunculata