Dragons and Wolves

One of the best ways to learn about the natural world is to go out and look at it with someone who really knows their stuff. Last Friday, I had the pleasure of doing just that on a guided day trip to some Norfolk heaths, arranged by Naturetrek and led by an extremely knowledgeable local naturalist, Mike Crewe.

I'm not sure open heathland was the best place to be with temperatures souring into the 30s, as it was a bit too warm for some of the birds and butterflies (and humans!). Despite that, we had a really great day and saw lots of interesting things.

One of the first very nice things we saw was a Spotted Flycatcher. This is a bird I haven't seen for a couple of years. Unfortunately, it was too distant for a photo, but we had lovely views of it through our binoculars.

Heaths are a great place to visit in late summer to see the lovely swathes of pinky purple heather.

We were just a bit too early to see the full display, as most of the Heather (Calluna vulgaris) was still in bud. It still looked lovely, though, especially against the vibrant yellow of Western Gorse (Ulex gallii) (left).

In contrast, the Bell Heather (Erica cinerea) was flowering nicely and added a lovely shot of pink in places - shown here with a Small Copper butterfly.

As we walked along the path, we started to see a lot of small holes in the ground and changes in soil colour where holes had been dug out. We stopped and watched. The hole-diggers were still at work - they were Beewolves! I have seen photos of Beewolves before, but have never knowingly seen them in the flesh, so I was quite excited, and it was fascinating to watch them.

Beewolves are solitary wasps. The females dig holes in sandy soils and create side chambers in which they lay an egg. They hunt honey bees, which they paralyse and place in the chamber with the egg for the larva to eat when it hatches.

It was amazing to watch these insects flying with prey that was almost as big as themselves. They then had to find their own hole among all of the holes on the path. They cover the entrance over when they leave it to prevent theft, so it is no easy task for them to find it again. Mike explained that they seem to orientate themselves by taking note of other objects in the environment (stones, edge of path, clumps of grass, other holes perhaps), but often things have changed by the time they get back - other Beewolves may have been digging and moving the soil around, people may have walked along and kicked stones or flattened the soil - and we could see some of them trying to solve this puzzle, hovering over the path and seemingly assessing the landmarks to work out where their hole was - all while carrying a paralysed honey bee.

Other insects included a lovely Brown Argus butterfly.

In a wet area of the heath we encountered lots of Keeled Skimmer dragonflies. Several of them posed nicely for us and there were also a few pairs in tandem.

There were plenty of interesting plants, too, including some that don't behave in a very plant-like way.

This is Dodder (Cuscuta epithymum). It is a parasitic plant. The red stems and the white flowers are the Dodder. Here it is parasitising Heather. Its leaves are just tiny scales and it has no green parts at all, so does not photosynthesise. It gets all of its food from its host. Mike explained to us that, when Dodder seeds germinate, there is only enough energy in the seed for the shoot to grow for a few days, so it has to find a host plant in that time or die. When it finds a host, the Dodder plant attaches to it and can immediately obtain nutrients from it. Its original attachment to the ground then dies off and it goes on to cover its host in these long red stems.

Round-leaved Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) is a carniverous plant. The leaves are covered in long, sticky glandular hairs. Any unsuspecting insect that lands on these leaves gets stuck in the stickiness. The plant secretes digestive enzymes, which dissolve the insect, releasing nutrients, which are then absorbed by the plant. It sounds a bit gruesome, but this lifestyle allows the plant to live in low-nutrient environments like wet acid heaths and bogs (acidity reduces the availability of some nutrients to plants).

This rather lovely plant is a Marsh Gentian (Gentiana pneumonanthe). It is nationally scarce, mainly because its habitat of lowland wet heath, is rare in the UK. It was the first time I had seen this plant, so it was exciting to see several plants in flower.

As the day had started with a nice bird (the Spotted Flycatcher) it was fitting that it ended with another nice bird. After spending a pleasant few minutes watching an adult and a juvenile Common Buzzard souring above our heads, we were on the hunt for a bit of shade when my eagle-eyed other half called out. I was just quick enough to see a medium-sized bird fly up and disappear behind a bush - it was a Nightjar! Too quick for a photo, but what a way to finish the day!

I also came away with a mission. Conifers have been a bit of a blind spot for me. I find it hard to get excited by them and don't tend to see many in the places I go regularly, so have avoided learning to identify them. Mike showed me a few at the end of the day and pointed out some of their identifying features and that has given me a bit of an impetus to tackle this group of plants. I'm sure they'll be interesting when I start looking at them ...

Water Mint (Mentha aquatica) Ragged Robin (Silene flos-cuculi) Marsh Gentian (Gentiana pneumonanthe)