Horsey seals & butterflies and Catfield Fen

Common (Harbour) Seal, Phoca vitulina

To  view  a  Slideshow,  click  here  then  choose  Fullscreen  (top  right)

Horsey beach was our coastal visit. We passed the National Trust site, a restored windpump and parked by the Nelson Head pub in the car park opposite by the melting barn as Sue has named the decaying structure. Postcode NR29 4AD

A lovely walk along the path to the sea dyke provided flowers and butterflies:

Common Blue

Large Skipper

Small Tortoiseshell

There were many old, tattered Common Blues

grasshopper

orchid

Convolvulus by the dyke

Common (Harbour) Seal, Phoca vitulina

A pair of common seals, male and female, entertained us for thirty minutes. They would sit up in the water, look all around, then dive and disappear for several minutes.

We had lunch at the Nelson Head where I had my usual pint of Wherrys. The steak and kidney pie was the best I have eaten since Mum used to cook them. When I told the landlord he said the cook has them in the oven for seven hours. Sue’s vegetable chilli was also very good.

In the afternoon after our usual cup of tea at the cottage I went off to Catfield Fen, the Butterfly Conservation reserve managed for the Swallowtails. The walk along the raised rond (bank) takes you through wild fen and past a derelict wind driven waterpump tower  used tod rain the fen. It leads for about 1.5 miles to the River Ant then you return on the same track. I saw one Swallowtail in flight. This is a very wild reserve and not set up for tourists.

Reeds are cut for thatching

derelict windpump

I was hissed at...

I observed what I assume was a Small Tortoiseshell courtship display on the ground. The male fluttered its wings while the female’s wings remained folded. but  nothing happened.