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A Suffolk Lane

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A Suffolk Lane

Tag Archives: River Yare

Highlights Part 3 Strumpshaw Fen

09 Mon Jan 2017

Posted by Clare Pooley in Days out, plants, Rural Diary, wild flowers

≈ 60 Comments

Tags

common meadow-rue, common twayblade, common valerian, Dame's-violet, dogwood, great crested grebe, green alkanet, grey heron, guelder rose, hemlock, hop, marsh thistle, milk-parsley, Mute Swan, Norfolk, Ragged Robin, River Yare, RSPB reserve, southern marsh-orchid, Strumpshaw Fen, the Broads, wild flowers, yellow water-lily, Yorkshire Fog

It was our 22nd wedding anniversary in June and instead of buying each other gifts we usually plan a day out that we will both enjoy.  We chose to visit Strumpshaw Fen  which is situated in the Broads.

p1000488pond

Pond at Strumpshaw Fen

We had hoped to see all sorts of birds here and I had set my heart on finding a Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio machaon), as the Broads is the only place in the British Isles where they can be found.

p1000494strumpshaw-fen

Fenland

As was the case with many of our ventures last year, we didn’t have as successful a visit as we had hoped because the weather was miserable.  It was cold, wet and windy – not a day for viewing rare butterflies or the Norfolk Hawker dragonfly or any of the birds we had hoped to see.   However, we persevered with our walk round the reserve and saw a few things of interest.

p1000496strumpshaw-fen

A broad

p1000499fish

Small fry – baby fish in the broad

p1000501dogwood

Dogwood (Cornus sanguinea) in flower

p1000502strumpshaw-fen

A waterway in the fen

p1000503yellow-water-lily-001

Yellow Water-lily (Nuphar lutea)

The flowers are much smaller than White Waterlily flowers being only 6 cm/2.5 ins across and are alcohol-scented apparently!

p1000506mute-swans

Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) with cygnets

p1000507common-valerian

Common Valerian (Valeriana officinalis) You can just see the pink flower-heads!

p1000508river-yare

The River Yare

p1000510hemlock

This might be Milk-parsley (Peucedanum palustre) the food plant of the Swallowtail caterpillar.

It might also be Hemlock! (Conium maculatum) They are both described as hairless biennials with purple-blotched stems.  Hemlock’s stems are hollow and purple-blotched and Milk-parsley has ridged stems that are often blotched purple!

p1000511hemlock

Ridged purple-blotched stems?  I can’t decide!

p1000512hemlock

More purple-blotched stems.

p1000513hop

Hop (Humulus lupulus)

p1000515dames-violet

Dame’s-violet (Hesperis matronalis)

p1000519guelder-rose

Guelder-rose (Viburnum opulus)

p1000521common-meadow-rue

Common Meadow-rue (Thalictrum flavum)

p1000524southern-marsh-orchid

Southern Marsh-orchid (Dactylorhiza praetermissa)

p1000526ragged-robin

Ragged-robin (Lychnis flos-cuculi)

p1000530marsh-thistle

Marsh Thistle (Cirsium palustre)

p1000531yorkshire-fog

A meadow full of Yorkshire Fog (Holcus lanatus)

The flower-heads of this grass are red-tipped and gave the meadow a pink glow!

Part of our walk was along Tinker’s Lane

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Tinker’s Lane – looking back the way we’d come

p1000534tinkers-lane

Tinker’s Lane – looking ahead. Elinor is the figure in the far distance

p1000536green-alkanet

Green Alkanet (Pentaglottis sempervirens)

p1000537common-twayblade

Not a good photo of Common Twayblade (Neottia ovata) Though ‘common’ I had never seen this orchid before and was very pleased.

p1000538common-twayblade

Common Twayblade

p1000542grey-heron

a Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea) that refused to look my way!

p1000544great-crested-grebe

Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus)

We enjoyed our walk round the fen and were pleased with the amount of interesting plants we had seen.  I would like to return there this summer if possible to see the butterflies, dragonflies and birds we had intended seeing last year!

Thanks for visiting!

 

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I talk about what it's like living in a quiet part of Suffolk. I am a wife, mother and daughter, a practising Christian and love the natural world that surrounds me. I enjoy my life - most of the time!

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