Day out in Norfolk

[Greenish]

On tuesday I went for a day out to Norfolk with my dad (Fourwings). We started the day at Dersingham Bog to look for Black Darter Dragonflies. Once we had found their pool, I attempted to photograph them but they wouldn't keep still for long enough and I wasn't patient enough to keep at one, so I didn't get an image of a Black Darter. Dad spent alot of time and got some good ones of them, however.

Dersingham Bog


Dersingham Bog Heather


Dersingham Bog Dragonfly Pool


After giving up on the Black Darters, I came across some Emerald Damselflies and an Earthball.

Emerald Damselfly


Earthball


Then we travelled on down the road to Titchwell Marsh. Most of the things we saw here were out of range for my little camera (Finepix A850), but I did manage to find and photograph a Toad and some Crabs in their little mud cave.

Common Toad

It is a very odd looking toad and Dad thinks that something has had a go at it by the size of it's right nostril.

Shore Crabs


Sea Lavender


Me

(Very bad picture of me!) To the right of me, you should be able to see the mud cave where I found the Shore Crabs.

Dad (Fourwings)


To miss the rush-hour traffic from Hunstanton, we decided to have a ride through the villages along the coast of Norfolk, towards Cromer. As we passed through Cley Next-The-Sea we stopped to photograph the famous Cley Windmill.

Cley Windmill


Our last stop of the day was at Salthouse Beach. It was a magnificent beach with a beautiful veiw over towards Sherringham. After spending some time here, we headed back off home to Leicestershire.

Salthouse Beach


I hope that you enjoyed reading about our day.

[col188]

I hope that you enjoyed reading about our day.

Yes I did ................. that Earth Ball looked huge.
Hope you and your Dad have many more such days.

Col

[pressld2]

Sounds like a great day out Bethany. I enjoyed my last trip to Norfolk which was also in the company of your dad!

I rather fancy another trip up to Cley and Titchwell myself now. I'll see if my son wants to keep me company.

Dave P.

[Greenish]

Hi Col, I'm glad that you enjoyed reading about my day. The earthball wasn't actually very big, but then again I don't know what the average size of an earthball is so I guess I can't really say that.

Hi Dave, yeah it really was a great day! It's a really nice area up there and I'm glad that my dad asked me to come along.

[thunder]

Originally Posted by Greenish

Common Toad

It is a very odd looking toad and Dad thinks that something has had a go at it by the size of it's right nostril.

Sounds and looks like a great day. Thanks for posting the pictures.

Toads are attacked by a greenbottle fly Bufolucilae bufonivorus, which lays its eggs on the toad's back. The larvae hatch and crawl to the eye and, via the tear ducts into the nasal cavity, from where they eat the toad alive
. I suspect this toad may be under such attack.

henrya

[Fourwings]

We certainly had a good day out on Tuesday, the weather was perfect.
The main target for the visit was Black Darters, these can only be found at two sites in Norfolk, Dersingham bog and Roydon common, I chose Dersingham as its on the main route through to the North Norfolk coast.
Dersingham certainly delivered the goods once we found the main Dragonfly pool, for those wanting to visit, park at the Wolferton carpark and make your way to the boardwalk, then turn right and follow the heathland trail (red posts), the pool is behind a small stand of Conifers and Laurels off the side of the heath trail about half a miles walk from the boardwalk.

Black Darters at the pool





This last image was taken with Bethanys little camera whilst I was having a play with it, I never saw another pair to get with the DSLR unfortunately


Although Bethany didnt manage to get an image of a Black Darter herself which isnt suprising as they are almost hyperactive and take great patience to get an image, she did become a perch for a female Black Darter for a couple of minutes!

Tichwell was fairly good although most stuff was way off and out of range for the cameras, I think this is partly to do with the extensive work being done on the new bunds, the beach did give me the chance to get within range of a small group of Black-tailed Godwits, I'd have liked to have got closer but I'm fairly happy with the results that I got.

Black-tailed Godwits




Our final destination for the day was Salthouse beach, one of my favourite places on this stretch of coastline and yet again it delivered a nice suprise in the form of a very confiding male Little Gull, a species that I had never seen close up before

Little Gull


It certainly rounded off a great day out for me.

[Greenish]

Hi Henrya, it's pretty sad that the toad's dying just to let the greenbottle larvae live, but I guess it's just the way of the world.

[Fourwings]

Originally Posted by thunder

Sounds and looks like a great day. Thanks for posting the pictures.

Toads are attacked by a greenbottle fly Bufolucilae bufonivorus, which lays its eggs on the toad's back. The larvae hatch and crawl to the eye and, via the tear ducts into the nasal cavity, from where they eat the toad alive
. I suspect this toad may be under such attack.

henrya

That explains alot, this Toads behaviour was very odd, it was crawling around on the footpath and it certainly did not look well as this macro image shows

A truely awful way to go, but thats nature, it isn't always nice or pretty!!

[Fourwings]

A few more images from Tuesdays outing that dont make the grade for the main galleries.

Female Black Darter, nice image but not a natural perch ( sorry Beth ;-))


Short-winged Conehead, only one I saw, unfortunately out of range for the macro lens


Eiders, a nice little group but just too far away for a good quality image


Black-tailed Godwit - would have made a cracking image if I'd been about 50 feet closer!


Emperor - Too far away and taken through vegetation, but better than nothing


Marsh Harrier - I was hoping for much more but this was the closest I got to one all day!


Cley Windmill - I can always be relied upon to mess up a decent veiw with a camera, all I can say is that it looked better through the veiw-finder!!


Just goes to show that you cant win them all when it comes to photography, but I had a great day with Bethany, we saw lots of great stuff, had a laugh and I did get the Darter images I wanted.

[NickCantle]

Lovely write up Bethany, and excellent images from both to accompany. I really should spend more time in the reputable places of my county instead of all of the places no-one goes Having said that, having your own wildlife havens that you consider 'yours' does have benefits