Morning out in the Broads today, particularly looking for butterflies & dragonflies. Lots of Swallowtails are on the wing now, but it was slightly windy so they kept settling out in the reeds (struggled to get a photo today – here’s one from the files below). We also saw a large number of Norfolk Hawkers, which were similarly evasive when the camera came out. There were also plenty of other butterflies, including Large Skippers & the first Meadow Browns, and dragonflies, with loads of Four-spotted Chasers and Black-tailed Skimmers.
Not to be left out, there were some good birds too. A Hobby was hawking back and forth over the reeds and was then joined by a second, which perched up in some dead trees. While we were watching them, a Bittern flew across in front of us. Later, as we were just about to leave, a chance scan of one of the grazing marshes revealed a surprise in the form of a pair of Cranes. We watched them for a while, surprisingly hard to see amongst the long grass and rushes for such a large bird. Not a bad haul for the morning!
