Saturday 4 June 2022

Butterflies and More at Hollesley Marshes


We decided to explore a section of the sea-wall at Hollesley Marshes, a small section of the Suffolk coast that was new to us. It was a very blustery afternoon, but dry and not very cold. To our surprise we found a good range of lepidoptera, a dragonfly and quite a few blue damselflies (which I have yet to check). 

Butterflies seen:

  1. Speckled Wood (above)
  2. Painted Lady 
  3. Red Admiral
  4. Large Skipper (our first of the season)
  5. Green Hairstreak
  6. Small Tortoiseshell
  7. Green-veined White
  8. Speckled Wood

Moth:

  1. (A rather tatty) Yellow Shell

Dragonfly: 

  1. Hairy Dragonfly

The area contains an inland RSPB reserve and also the coastal and estuarine reserve of Simpson's Saltings, run by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust. The next two photos show a couple of meres in the RSPB part of the site.


The photo below shows a larger wetland area on the landward side of the sea-wall. We saw a range of waterbirds here; Shoveler, Shelduck, Avocet, Mute Swan, Redshank, Lapwing and more.

I was very taken with this secluded bay in the Simpson's Saltings area. The wide estuary beyond is part of the river; the shore is reserved for wildlife so we admired it from the bank.


Shoveler on one of the landward meres

 

The next photo shows David on the sea-wall. The strong wind was responsible for all those white horses beyond.



Green Hairstreak


Red Admiral (and below)

The red arrow shows the saltings on the Alde-Ore estuary site

A very tattered Yellow Shell moth


Large Skipper butterfly


Hairy Dragonfly

You can see the hairy thorax below the eyes

wildflowers; the poppies were stunning

Small Toroiseshell


A drift of Thrift

A wasp, as yet unidentified, probably collecting slivers of wood

 

Green-veined White

Damselfly season kicking off apace!


2 comments:

Lowcarb team member said...

Such a nice selection of photographs from your visit.

All the best Jan

Crafty Green Poet said...

Beautiful photos Caroline and a lovely selection of insects!