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!