Please note that the below itinerary represents a guide to what we hope to offer, and some elements may be subject to change or confirmation nearer the time. Certain visits are dependent on local weather conditions and tides.
In a landscape where vast flawless beaches stretch for miles, where wind-tousled reeds bob their heads beneath huge summer sunsets and flint-walled churches cleave to the coastline, we will step out to experience some of the UK’s most captivating wildlife.
July is a particularly dynamic time to enjoy Norfolk, which comes alive in early summer with bird, insect and plant life. We expect to see woodlark, waders and warblers, and will enter the mysterious twilight world of the nightjar. Tour Director Mark Welch will adopt a holistic perspective, with commentary ranging from the distinctive formation of the landscape itself to the insects that call it home.
Kelling Heath, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and Salthouse Heath are both important glacial outwash plains formed by retreating glaciers of the last Ice Age. They provide habitats for a variety of heathland birds among the heather, gorse and bracken, as well as other inhabitants including adder, roe deer and brown hare. An evening visit to Salthouse Heath will provide an opportunity to see nightjar, woodlark and, possibly, tree pipit.
Blakeney will welcome us for a day both on land and sea, taking in the colonies of common seal and their pups that loaf in the summer sunshine, as well as terns and early returning migrants. At St Margaret’s Church in Cley we will view the village’s lasting impression of a rare North American visitor, a white-crowned sparrow, immortalised in a stained-glass window after this tiny bird was discovered in the vicar’s garden. To finish the day, we shall visit the Blakeney esker, a remnant of the last Ice Age, which offers a fascinating insight into the area’s geological history.
A special highlight will be a morning visit to Dersingham Bog National Nature Reserve, part of the Sandringham Estate. Incorporating rare lowland “acid” mire habitat, heath and mixed woodland, the reserve is the perfect place to discover unusual species of plants and insects, including the black darter dragonfly. We will enjoy a privileged walk with a Natural England Reserves Manager, who will explain more about the challenges and joys of taking care of this beautiful environment for conservation. Indeed, conservation is a theme throughout our tour, which will celebrate Norfolk’s distinctive natural history while appreciating the need to protect its habitats.
We stay throughout at the four-star Pheasant Hotel, a relaxing country house hotel close to Blakeney village, and our tour finishes with a delicious lunch at the award-winning Rose & Crown Pub in Snettisham.
Tour Director Mark Welch, BSc, PhD, has had an active interest in natural history since he was a boy in Dorset, where he roamed the heaths, woods, beaches and cliff-tops in search for birds and insects. A former Regional Representative for Cambridgeshire for the British Trust for Ornithology, Mark has for the past 27 years been a research scientist in the Department of Earth Sciences at London’s Natural History Museum. He has led many field trips in the UK as a geologist and naturalist, including in Cornwall, East Anglia and northern Scotland, and is delighted to be directing this ACE tour to Norfolk.
