Norfolk Botanical Walks - Summer 2009

Ideal for overseas visitors holidaying in the UK!

The Walks

Monday 6 July 2009 and
Saturday 11 July 2009

NW. NORFOLK
WOLFERTON and SNETTISHAM

The day will start at 09.30 at Wolferton and will end at around 17.00.

* A walk from the Wolferton carpark, through woodland to an escarpment that marks an ancient coastline of the Wash, then down through dry heath to a boardwalk which leads out across the boggy areas. Length c. 2km (1.3mi).

* A walk along the shingle bank at Snettisham Beach, around the RSPB reserve lakes, to some of the viewing hides. In addition to the coastal and marsh flora there are chances of seeing some interesting birds, including avocets, knot, and bar-tailed godwits. Length c. 6km (3.8mi).

Tuesday 7 July 2009 and
Sunday 12 July 2009

NW. NORFOLK
THORNHAM

The walk will start at 09.30 at Thornham beach carpark and end there at around 17.00.

* A walk around Thornham saltmarsh, to the sea, and then along through the Holme dunes. In addition to the coastal flora, there may be interesting birds such as avocets at Broad Water lake. Length c. 8km (5mi).

Additional costs - Holme Dunes reserve entrance fee (free if you are a member of the NWT).

Wednesday 8 July 2009

THE NORFOLK BROADS

The day will start at 09.30 at Barton Broad and will end at around 17.00.

* A walk from the Barton Broad carpark at Neatishead, through countryside to the boardwalk which leads through rich fen woodland to a view out over Barton Broad. Length c. 3km (2mi).

* Picnic lunch at How Hill, with reed beds and sometimes marsh harriers. Time to look around the small but interesting Toad Hole Cottage Museum. Length c. 0.7km (0.5mi)

* A walk along the bank of the River Bure, then along a botanically restored waterway and some reed-sedge marsh to Cockshoot Broad. Length c. 2.3km (1.5mi)

Additional costs - Barton Broad car park.

Northwest Norfolk

Monday 6 and Tuesday 7 July 2009 - £25 per person per day
Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 July 2009 - £25 per person per day

This chance to enjoy the varied flora on the western side of Norfolk can be combined with the relevant Norfolk Broads walk, to make up an excellent three days.

Northwest Norfolk faces west over the Wash, an area of tidal mud that is an internationally significant wildfowl feeding area, and north over a North Sea lined by long sand beaches, dunes, saltmarsh and muddy estuarine creeks. Inland, there are Greensand deposits along the eastern edge of the Wash, originally with an acid-loving heathland flora, now much replaced by woodland, but fragments remain near Wolferton. Near Hunstanton, the chalk emerges at Ringstead Down. The area is covered by OS Explorer map 250.

The tiny village of Wolferton was royal Sandringham's railway station on the now long-gone rail line to Hunstanton. The houses belong to Sandringham, and are used by estate workers. Wolferton Fen and adjacent Dersingham Bog National Nature Reserve (NNR) are also part of the Sandringham royal estate and are managed for their wildlife by English Nature. There are three distinct habitats, of which the most significant is acid valley mire, which lies on shallow peat in the lowest-lying areas. Past peat-cutting has further lowered the ground level thereby helping to keep the ground waterlogged for much of the year. This is the largest and most intact example of this habitat in East Anglia, with relics of a late-glacial flora. The wet acid peat contains 8 species of Sphagnum moss, plus county rarities including bog asphodel, round-leaved and long-leaved sundews, cranberry and white-beaked sedge. The area is also home to a number of rare insects, including dragonflies and water beetles. The micro-moth, Choristeneura lafauryana - which feeds on bog-myrtle - is found nowhere else in Britain, and is therefore rare enough not to have an English name, but nevertheless is known as the Dersingham moth. The dry heath around the valley has nesting nightjars.

Snettisham Beach is an internationally important bird reserve, overlooking the fertile mud of the Wash and providing winter grazing for many thousands of wild geese and waders. The shingle banks of the sea walls provide a home to a number of coastal plants, whilst the grazing marshes, grassland and pools behind have a further varied flora.

Thornham Saltmarshes and Holme Beach. The saltmarshes at Thornham - like others along Norfolk's coast - are important grazing and roosting areas for wild geese and waders, as well being botanically important. Summer residents we are likely to see include the conspicuous shelduck and oystercatchers, as well as redshank. Along the beach can be found small pieces of amber.

At both Snettisham beach and Thornham-Holme beach, some areas of the sands or foreshore are signed or roped off to indicate where there are nesting birds such as terns and ringed plovers. You should not walk into these areas.

marsh woundwort

Botanical highlights include: Artemisia maritima, Aster tripolium, Atriplex laciniata, Atriplex littoralis, Atriplex portulacoides, Atriplex prostrata, Calystegia soldanella, Cochlearia anglica, Cochlearia danica, Cochlearia officinalis, Dactylorhiza coccinea, Dactylorhiza praetermissa, Drosera intermedia, Drosera rotundifolia, Eryngium maritimum, Euphorbia paralias, Filago minima, Glaucium flavum, Hippophaë rhamnoides, Honkenya peploides, Lathyrus nissolia, Limonium bellidifolium, Limonium binervosum subsp. anglicum, Limonium vulgare, Narthecium ossifragum, Oenanthe lachenalii, Plantago maritima, Salicornia dolichostachya, Salicornia europaea, Salicornia pusilla, Salicornia ramosissima, Sarcocornia perennis, Silene uniflora, Smyrnium olusatrum, Spergularia media, Spergularia salina, Suaeda maritima, Suaeda vera, Triglochin maritima, Vaccinium oxycoccos and Verbascum pulverulentum.

Dactylorhiza_praetermissa

If you prefer, the English names for the above are: sea wormwood; sea aster; frosted and grass-leaved orache; sea purslane; spear-leaved orache; sea bindweed; English, early and common scurvy-grass; scarlet and southern marsh-orchid; long-leaved and round-leaved sundew; sea holly; sea spurge; small cudweed; yellow horned-poppy; sea buckthorn; sea sandwort; grass vetchling, matted, rock and common sea-lavender; bog asphodel; long-spiked, common, one-flowered and purple glasswort (samphire); perennial glasswort; sea campion, alexanders, greater and lesser sea-spurrey; annual and shrubby seablite; sea arrow-grass, cranberry and hoary mullein.

Norfolk Broads
Wednesday 8 July 2009 - £25 per person for the day

This chance to enjoy the flora on the eastern side of Norfolk. This walk can be combined with the relevant Northwest Norfolk walks, to make up an excellent three days.

Despite having low rainfall, Norfolk has some of England's best wetland habitats, including the floodplain wetlands of the broads. The broads were created by the wholesale excavation between 950 and 1350 AD of the fenland peat beds for fuel. In 1330, Norwich Cathedral Priory recorded talking delivery of 100,000 cu.ft. of peat turves. Inevitably the deeper diggings were flooded by rivers during flood tides, and the open water and large number of small landowners made serious reclamation impossible until the introduction of windpumps in the 18th century. A lot of wetlands were lost, right through until the 1980s, when grants for drainage ceased. Sedge- and reed-cutting for thatch continues to the present day, but eutrophication - increasing nutrient levels from agricultural fertiliser run-off - is a major problem. The nutrients promote much faster algal growth, shading out and killing plants, and producing greatly increased mud depths on the bed of the broads. The lakes are dependent on Daphnia - minute crustaceans (water-fleas) - to control the algae, however the Daphnia are dependent on plants for shelter from the small fish that eat them. As the plants decreased, so did the Daphnia, allowing further accelerated algal growth. Biomanipulation techniques used here involve the transfer of fish to other areas and the removal of nutrient-rich mud, to promote the restoration of Daphnia populations and the water clarity. The area is covered by OS Explorer map OL40.

Barton Broad, northeast of Wroxham, is part of the Ant Broads and Marshes National Nature Reserve (NNR), and under Norfolk Wildlife Trust (NWT) management. The broad drains into the River Ant, and saw a significant deterioration in water quality from the 1970s, with a consequent loss of plant species. Since 1995, a National Lottery grant has been used to fund pioneering biomanipulation techniques to create clear water conditions.

How Hill, east of Wroxham, soars to an altitude of 10m above sea level, and overlooks the River Ant and the southern part of the Ant Broads and Marshes NNR. The reserve represents one of the most extensive remaining areas of primary fen habitat in Britain and the finest example of unpolluted valley fen in Western Europe.

Cockshoot Broad, southeast of Wroxham, is part of the Bure Marshes NNR under NWT management. A boardwalk leads alongside the River Bure, then through the botanically-rich alder carr, past a biologically restored waterway, to a hide overlooking the open water of Cockshoot Broad.

Botanical Highlights: Rare plants of the broads include Cicuta virosa (cowbane), Dryopteris cristata (crested buckler fern), Peucedanum palustre (milk parsley) and Sium latifolium (greater water-parsnip). Other plants of interest from the broads and Winterton include: Alisma lanceolatum, Alisma plantago-aquatica, Anagallis tenella, Angelica sylvestris, Berula erecta, Callitriche stagnalis, Calystegia sepium subsp. roseata, Carex arenaria, Carex paniculata, Carex pseudocyperus, Carex riparia, Carex rostrata, Ceratocapnos claviculata, Cirsium palustre, Cladium mariscus, Dryopteris dilatata, Erica cinera, E. tetralix, Frangula alnus, Hydrocharis morsus-ranae, Hydrocotyle vulgaris, Impatiens capensis, Iris pseudacorus, Jasione montana, Lycopus europaeus, Lysimachia vulgaris, Lythrum salicaria, Nuphar lutea, Nymphaea alba, Osmunda regalis, Potentilla palustris, Ranunculus flammula, Ranunculus lingua, Ranunculus sceleratus, Ribes nigrum, Ribes rubrum, Rumex hydrolapathum, Sagittaria sagittifolia, Salix repens, Samolus valerandi, Schoenoplectus lacustris, Scutellaria galericulata, Silene flos-cuculi, Sium latifolium; Sonchus palustris, Sparganium emersum, Sparganium erectum, Stachys palustris, Stratiotes aloides, Typha angustifolia, Typha latifolia and Valeriana officinalis.

If you prefer, the English names for the above are: narrow-leaved and common water-plantain; bog pimpernel; angelica, lesser water-parsnip; water-starwort; pink hedge bindweed; sand, greater tussock, cyperus, pond and bottle sedge; climbing fumitory; marsh thistle; sedge; broad buckler-fern; bell heather; cross-leaved heath; alder buckthorn; frog-bit; marsh pennywort; orange balsam; yellow flag; sheep's-bit; gipsywort; yellow loosestrife; purple loosestrife; yellow waterlily; white waterlily; royal fern; marsh cinquefoil; lesser and greater spearwort; celery-leaved buttercup; black and red currant; greater water-dock; arrowhead; creeping willow; brookweed; grey club-rush; skullcap; ragged robin; marsh sowthistle; unbranched and branched bur-reed; marsh woundwort; water soldier; lesser and common reedmace, and valerian.

The Fauna. The endemic British race of the swallowtail butterfly chose the rare milk-parsley as its larval foodplant, thereby restricting its distribution to the East Anglian fens - we hope to see some specimens during our visit. Rare bird species are to be found in the broads including the bittern and the bearded tit, but we are more likely to see marsh harriers, great crested grebe and sedge warblers.

Three days for £60 per person; or £25 per person per day for one or two days
Please bring a picnic lunch each day.

Maximum group size 12 persons + leader(s), so ideal for complete beginners as well as for the more experienced.

Walking. The terrain is mostly very straightforward, walking on paths, dirt tracks, boardwalks, or beach sand. Maximum altitude reached above sea level is 30m. There may be the occasional muddy spot, but in general the paths are comparatively dry underfoot. It is not possible to bring dogs on the walks. See the report on our 2004 Norfolk walks.

• If these dates don't suit you - why not contact Lance for a tailor-made botanical day or two or three in Norfolk.

Accommodation

For the Northwest Norfolk walks, we would recommend staying in Hunstanton or nearby. Accommodation details are available from the tourist office at Hunstanton tel. 01485 532610 or Email.
For the Broads (60 miles, approximately 2hrs drive from Hunstanton), accommodation details can be found at Visit Norwich tel. 01603 727927.

Lance Chilton and Marengo,
17 Bernard Crescent, HUNSTANTON PE36 6ER, England
e-mail us: here