Poppyland Nature: South Coast

Tuesday 31 July 2012

South Coast

With summer having temporarily arrived, I made a quick day trip down to the south coast last week with my first destination being the New Forest for a spot of dragonflying.

Crockford Stream was my first port of call, which proved to be a really excellent spot. Walking from the car park at Crockford Bridge down to the stream, the heath was found to be alive with Silver-studded Blues flitting across the heather in the rapidly rising heat.

Nearing the stream Small Red Damselflies started to be encountered, and then shortly after I found my first target of the day, a Southern Damselfly in the bog myrtle bordering the stream, with up to half-a-dozen more found around the small area which I concentrated on during the ensuing couple of hours or so, including a pair in cop.

Walking around more Small Red Dams were found, Keeled Skimmers made the odd fly-past and numerous Beautiful Demoiselles danced away over the stream and perched up in the vegetation.

Then a large dragonfly appeared along the stream. and after a game of cat and mouse trying to get a good look at it, it finally gave itself up to reveal that it was my second hoped-for species a Golden-ringed Dragonfly. Two or three were seen buzzing around the area with the occasional clash in flight between them, but thankfully they also regularly perched up allowing a few pics to be obtained.

I then moved on to the nearby Silver Stream/Ober Water area where yet more Small Red Damselflies were encountered.

A couple more Golden-ringed Dragonflies were seen, and Keeled Skimmers were numerous around the streams and pools and on the heath in general. A couple of Redstarts were seen along the forest edge along with a Spotted Flycatcher, and further along White-legged Damelflies were numerous along Ober Water.

It was then on to Durlston Country Park for a spot of Butterflying and after a bit of searching to find the most productive area I managed to locate my final target of the trip Lulworth Skipper. The females were fairly easy to pick out with their distinctive light crescent in the wing, but the males were pretty indistinct, although they were a noticably dingier colour compared to the brighter orange of our other skippers, and with some, such as the male picured below, also ghosting the wing pattern of the females.

Numerous other butterflies were seen around the park including this fresh Small Blue.

Good numbers of Marbled Whites were also seen, although like most of the other butterflies seen, they rarely landed in the sunny and hot weather, so I just grabbed a quick record shot of one which paused briefly.

This Large White also paused briefly to feed before heading off along the clifftop.

Birdwise a juv Black Redstart was on the cliffs, Shags were on the sea, and Ravens and Peregrines were present too.

My Patch

My patch covers roughly a 10 mile stretch along the north Norfolk coast, from Beeston in the west along to Trimingham in the east, plus a small area inland including Felbrigg Park, Roughton and Northrepps, although the vast majority of my time is spent concentrating on the area from West Runton along to Overstrand.
The main habitats of the area are the coastal bushes and scrub which attract migrants in spring and autumn, a few clifftop woods and fields, the park & lake at Felbrigg, rocky and sandy beaches, and the cliffs and sea which both present great potential for observing coastal passage.

My Photos

The bird photos on here are all digiscoped using a Panasonic Lumix TZ3 compact camera and a Kowa TSN 824 scope. I use a 50x wide angle lens on the scope with no zoom on the camera which seems to go against all the 'expert' advice you read on forums etc, but it works for me and I'm pleased with the results. Additionally I also just hold the camera in place by hand rather than use any adapters to fix it in place, and apart from altering exposure levels, I just go with the automatic levels on the camera so it is really just a case of point and shoot.
The Butterfly and Dragonfly pictures are taken with the camera alone using its macro setting and again mostly using no zoom, which naturally requires a lot of careful stalking of the subject to get close enough to get the quality of picture that I desire.

Poppyland

In 1883 the London based playwright, poet and theatre critic, Clement Scott, visited Cromer as a travel writer for the Daily Telegraph taking advantage of the newly opened railway to the town. On arrival he walked east along the coast to seek accommodation and fell in love with the idyllic villages of Overstrand and Sidestrand and the solitude they presented away from the nearby town. With fields of poppies carpeting the clifftops, he christened the area 'Poppyland' and subsequently wrote a series of articles about his visit in the Telegraph. These were later published as the Poppyland Papers, and his writings made the area probably the best known holiday destination in the country with many victorians visiting the area to enjoy its delights, and the most wealthy of them having houses built in the area, with Overstrand soon becoming known as 'The village of millionaires'. The term Poppyland has stuck ever since, and although it originally just referred to the Overstrand and Sidestrand area, the extension of the railway line to Sheringham and Mundesley, known as the Poppy Line, led to that whole stretch of coast becoming known as Poppyland.

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Tuesday 31 July 2012

South Coast