1st June
- Norfolk Wildlife Trust, Ranworth Broad.
It always surprises me how at this time of year
you turn your back and the landscape changes. I missed a week of volunteering
here (Rolling Stones concert - brilliant), so a fortnight has passed since I
strolled along the boardwalk to the Visitor Centre. What a transformation! The
reeds have shot up, the yellow flag have bloomed, the guelder rose wafts it
sickly sweet fragrance through the wet woodland and the gulls have cleared from
the tern rafts allowing the common terns themselves, the emblem of Norfolk
Wildlife Trust, to move in and commence the frantic task of raising a new
generation.
It’s half term so the Visitor Centre is quite
busy with families seeking some distraction. One particular group books onto a
guided walk I am leading, the first of the season, and are joined by another
gentleman that wishes to see more of the wildlife living on the reserve. These
six people are enough as a debutante group, especially when most of the event
is confined to a narrow boardwalk and the sun is not shining. The theme of the
walk is a broad one - wildlife - and despite the overcast, slightly cool day
there is plenty to be found. First up plants, some of which are coming into
bloom, others just poking their heads out of the swamp. The star attraction is
of course the milk parsley that is growing well here, it’s feathery, delicate
leaf competing successfully with the more aggressive reed that would suffocate
the plant if the site wasn’t managed by annual alternate cutting either side of
the boardwalk. Marsh thistle, ragged robin, marsh fern, marsh valerian,
meadowsweet and hop join the list before we find a small cluster of common
twayblade, which is anything but common hereabouts. These delicate orchids need
a close up look to be fully appreciated, their more robust relatives, southern marsh
orchid are far more obvious with their bright purple flower heads spotted
across the marsh.
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| Yellow Flag in the Woodland |
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| Milk Parsley |
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| Common Twayblade |
There are birds: reed warblers chuntering their rhythmic
chant from the stands of last year’s brown reed stems adorning the uncut side
of our path. Blackcaps, wrens, robin and chaffinches join the cast whilst terns
and gulls screech overhead. We reach the wood.
Here the focus is talking about the various uses
of the trees, shrubs and plants in times gone by: hazel for fencing, willow
bark as a form of aspirin, meadowsweet for fragrant flooring, how the trees
when they reach a certain size cannot be supported by the boggy ground and sink
slowly into the mire; infant peat deposits in the making. And then we reach the
majestic oak, a remnant of ancient times, yet a reminder of the ultimate fate
of the whole system were it not for the management regime. How many creatures
does this king amongst trees support? Measured in thousands surely, a whole
ecosystem in its own right.
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| Royal Fern |
We loop back to the Visitor Centre seeing a
bright deep orange breasted bird on the way which stirs the children in our
party to excited pointing and debate. There is disagreement whether this half
seen bird is a kingfisher, there is a pair in this very area, but it’s position
high in a willow mitigates against this. It is a male bullfinch that flies
quickly off once it realises it has been spotted. A good sighting though.
We arrive back just as the air is beginning to
warm, encouraging banded demoiselles to emerge from their sheltering spot in
the reeds. We see grebes and terns fishing, a heron plunge diving into the edge
of the broad and swallows at last flipping around the thatch ready, hopefully,
to build their mud nests once again and entertain the visitors over the coming
summer months.
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