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:
- Speckled Wood (above)
- Painted Lady
- Red Admiral
- Large Skipper (our first of the season)
- Green Hairstreak
- Small Tortoiseshell
- Green-veined White
- Speckled Wood
Moth:
- (A rather tatty) Yellow Shell
Dragonfly:
- 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.
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Shoveler on one of the landward meres
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The next photo shows David on the sea-wall. The strong wind was responsible for all those white horses beyond.
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Green Hairstreak
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Red Admiral (and below)
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The red arrow shows the saltings on the Alde-Ore estuary site
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A very tattered Yellow Shell moth
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Large Skipper butterfly
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Hairy Dragonfly
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You can see the hairy thorax below the eyes
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wildflowers; the poppies were stunning
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Small Toroiseshell
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A drift of Thrift
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A wasp, as yet unidentified, probably collecting slivers of wood
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Green-veined White
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Damselfly season kicking off apace!
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