The Whitlingham Bird Report for 2023 is now available to download from the Bird Reports page or from here

WEST NORFOLK: Roydon Common

9th August 2011


Last year whilst in west Norfolk we had called in at Dersingham Bog to look for Black Darters, without success. I had heard that they were easier to find at Roydon Common, so that was todays destination. I had been to the western carpark at Roydon a few times and the heathland looked very dry, so I guessed that the eastern carpark would be better. The map in the NWT reserves handbook showed a sort of figure of eight track, with mire at the far end of it. We took the left hand path, and at a junction took the left hand path over a style, thinking that it wouldn't make any difference. Well it did. This path, not marked on the map, simply took us along the boundary of the reserve to a road at the end. It was a nice walk, loads of butterflies and commoner dragonflies, but no wet heathland.


After a picnic lunch we re-traced our steps, but for some reason the Cathy had rather lost some of her appetite for looking for small black dragonflies at this point. We took the other path at the point we had gone wrong and looked over a small rushy clearing, but agreed to go back to the car rather than go for another long walk. I presume it is just a matter of following one of the small tracks through the woods, but if anyone can put me out of my misery and give nice directions to a good area for Black Darters I would appreciate it.

No comments:

Post a Comment