How Hill – MKNHS Moth-ers July 2025 (Photo © Martin Kincaid)

In late July, members of MKNHS visited the How Hill study centre in the Norfolk Broads for the fourth time. A smaller group had visited in May 2024 and previously groups had stayed in 2007 and 2008, on the recommendation of Paul Lund who had first visited with the Wildlife Sound Recordists. The How Hill Trust owns the Edwardian house and its extensive gardens and provides environmental education to local schools and youth groups as well as themed courses for adults.

This year eighteen of us visited and the weather was, for the most part, very good. High on our list of target species was that Broadland speciality, the Swallowtail butterfly. 2025 has been a fabulous season for this species but would we be lucky enough to see any so late in the season? We need not have worried with the first one being seen feeding on Buddleia within half an hour of our arrival! The HHT director, Simon Partridge, gave us a warm welcome and explained that he had seen more of the butterflies this summer than for perhaps forty years. As members arrived in the late afternoon, many of them were treated to the site of a swallowtail in the car park as they unpacked their cars. Over the weekend we saw a good variety of butterflies with other highlights including Wall Brown, White Admiral (in the woods), Painted Lady and Purple Hairstreaks in the oaks just outside the house. One of the latter gave us close views on the Sunday. Small Tortoiseshells, now so rare in our region, were also seen.

We had the use of the Trust’s moth trap over the weekend. This was set up each evening and inspected early in the mornings by Linda Murphy and Janice Robertson, together with any others who managed to emerge. The moths did not disappoint and a full list of species recorded follows this report. We were all thrilled to see several Garden Tiger. This glorious moth has all but vanished from Bucks and much of central England but is still quite common in East Anglia. Wainscot moths kept us on our toes and among the more common species, Southern Wainscot was new to many of us. Looked at face-on, this moth appears to be wearing a distinctive ‘head band’ absent in the other wainscots.

Garden TIger (Photo © Martin Kincaid)

Memorably, our mothing session on Sunday morning was interrupted by a loud trumpeting sound coming from across the River Ant. Linda and I looked at each other and both mouthed the word ‘Cranes’. They took a little while to find, but soon Linda had her telescope trained on a pair of Common Cranes down in the marsh below us and most of the group were able to enjoy them. We soon got back to the moths, however. A list of all 88 species noted during the weekend can be found here.

We did not have a group boat trip as in other years but most members arranged their own boat trips on the river. A short walk from the house is the How Hill Staithe, and from here the ‘Electric Eel’ takes small groups of up to six. A few people were lucky enough to see and photograph Swallowtail larvae from the boat with others seeing a variety of birds and plantlife. Given the very hot and dry summer conditions, it was unsurprising that most of the flowering plants were past their best but we still found some nice aquatic and marginal species. We were particularly pleased to find Bladderwort Utricularia spp. which was abundant in places. However, we couldn’t definitely say which of the two species this was without close examination.

Bladderwort spp. (Photo © Martin Kincaid)

Arrowhead Sagittaria sagittifolia is not often seen in flower in MK but there was a fine display of white flowers at the Staithe together with Yellow Water-lily Nuphar lutea. We were unable to find Milk Parsley Peucedanum plustre around the nature reserve but this impressive plant was found – together with feeding Swallowtail caterpillars – at other fenland sites nearby.

Swallowtail larva feeding on Milk Parsley (Photo © Martin Kincaid)

Although we didn’t concentrate as much on birds as we had last year, our group managed to see Barn Owl, Tawny Owl, Marsh Harrier, Hobby and other birds of prey. Tawny Owls could be heard throughout the night! Mammals were also a little disappointing although the display of Pipistrelle and Noctule bats on the first evening was memorable. Otherwise, Rabbits and Roe Deer were the main species seen.

On the Friday evening, three of us took a short torchlit stroll down to the river to look for glow-worms. None were found (we had seen glow-worm larvae here in 2024) but we heard a loud rustling from the path and pointing the torch saw the largest Common Toad any of us had seen! This was a huge male toad and about the size of my fist. Over the next few days we would find many newly emerged froglets and toadlets in boggy areas of the nature reserve but we didn’t see Jumbo again.

On Sunday we were joined by former Society member Ella Cooke who now lives in Norwich and works for Norfolk Wildlife Trust. Ella confirmed that Swallowtails had been common since early May. She managed to spot one of the most impressive insects seen over the weekend – a large parasitoid wasp which was trying to escape from the sun lounge of How Hill. This was captured and we were eventually able to identify it as Rhyssa persuasoria sometimes known as the Sabre-wasp, one of the largest ichneumon species found in the UK.  A great find and a something new to most of us. Ella also managed to spot a Norfolk Hawker dragonfly down by the marshman’s cottage.

Sabre-wasp Rhyssia persuasoria (Photo © Ella Cooke)

The staff at How Hill were all incredible friendly and helpful and the food, as usual, was superb. How Hill and its nature reserve are well worth a visit if you find yourself in the Broads – and we will be hearing a bit more about it during our autumn programme.

Martin Kincaid
August 2025