Sunday 17 July 2016

Beauty From The Bog

If you read my last offering - about the royal railway station at Wolferton - it might have occurred to you that it was a long journey for me to make to see a railway station. After all I have a railway station just 10 minutes walk from my back door. Not a royal one it's true, but the former station master was once a contestant on Mastermind so that's at least some small claim to fame.


One of the beauties of England (and the only thing that keeps this blog ticking over) is that there is always plenty to see in a small area. What I'd come to see was the admittedly rather unattractively named Dersingham Bog.


We don't have many bogs in East Anglia. We have fens - mile after mile of them. We have marshes too, but very few bogs.

OK, so what's the difference, surely they're all just mucky, badly drained bits of ground. Well yes they are, and though it won't make any difference as far as your soggy feet are concerned, it makes all the difference to the plants and flowers that grow there.


Marshes are frequently inundated with water, either fresh or saltwater, and are nutrient rich so support a wide variety of plants. Fens have water flowing through them, while in bogs the water is just trapped there and gradually becomes more and more acidic from decaying plant matter.


The water in this bog has run off from off the iron-rich sandstone and the iron has created an "iron pan" (sounds like something you'd have in the kitchen I know) which prevents the water draining away and impedes the roots of most plants. Mosses love it but only certain highly specialised plants can grow in a true bog, plants like Sundew.....


....as the bog is so poor in nutrients it supplements its diet by catching flies and other insects on its highly specialised sticky leaves. If you look closely you can see some half-digested flies. Very tasty.


Bog Asphodel, as its name suggests is another plant that thrives in this harsh habitat.




There are a few areas of open water like the magical little pond above, which is largely hidden from view.




Towards the margins of the bog more grasses are able to survive because the nature reserve, despite its name, does not only include the bog, but also the sandstone edges which support heathland and some woodland.



All three types of heather, common heather, bell heather and cross-leaved heath grow on the heathland and on a sunny day these attract a wide variety of insects.




This is the only insect I managed to photograph - a male Gatekeeper butterfly. He'd just been chasing a female and was maybe pausing for breath, or planning his next move - either way he let me get close enough to grab the above photo.





And the insects attract lots of birds, most notably the rare Nightjar. These are nocturnal birds so unsurprisingly they weren't around on a bright sunny day, but I did see Stonechat, Buzzard and Kestrel as well as many more common birds.


Walking through this area always sends my mind reeling back to more northern areas that I used to frequent regularly in the past. There's cotton grass, there's heather and there's the scent of the pines.


Unusually, the best views of the reserve are obtainable without much effort to anyone leaving their car in the parking spaces near to the village of Wolferton and undertaking a short easy walk along a sandy track around the top of the sandstone escarpment.


Take care.



19 comments:

  1. The sundew is beautiful. Great hike and photos!

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  2. What an enjoyable read and delightful photo's! I have heard of Dersingham Bog, maybe one to visit sometime! East Anglia has some excellent areas...no not 'some' but lots!

    Thanks for sharing Dersingham Bog.

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  3. Lovely images and interesting information, John. I don't like walking through the boggy areas when I'm on a long-distance walk in the U.K., but I always enjoy seeing them. As you say, they are always accompanied by interesting plant life.

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  4. What a very interesting post John, I have wondered exactly what the difference between a bog and marsh is. Nature never ceases to amaze me in it's determination to survive in harsh conditions. Enjoyed your photos and info yesterday on the royal station at Wolferton, so worth while the distance travelled to see it.

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  5. Interesting plants with understated beauty. I've walked through my share of blogs and gotten wet feet but never thought about why it was a bog rather than a marsh so I appreciate the explanation.

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  6. I so appreciate reading about the differences among bogs, fens, and marshes. The photos are wonderful, and the plant life at the bog quite lovely. Another fine journey!

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  7. Hi John - wonderful photos and story line ... love seeing the area and learning more about the bog - I'll remember when I go up again - who knows when. But fascinating to see - thanks and cheers Hilary

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  8. Such a beautiful landscape! Thanks for explaining the differences between a marsh, fens and bogs.

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  9. The variety of plants is amazing to see, and beautiful!

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  10. I didn't know the difference between the different kinds of wetlands, thats what we call them here. Did you get muddy feet?

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  11. Thanks for teaching me something I didn't know I needed to know!! Your photos are brilliant, so colorful and bright. As for the 'nature reserve' being a misnomer--here in New Zealand, we have found out the hard way that 'scenic reserves' are just pieces of land that are left natural and not necessarily a scenic place.

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  12. Looks an interesting place, the sundews are interesting and I love your shot of the gatekeeper butterfly:)

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  13. Very interesting! The only species you mentioned that we have in bogs here are the Sundew and the Cotton Grass. Only a few of them in southern Ontario, but they're fascinating places ecologically.

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  14. John -- Liked your explanation between bog, marsh and fen. The reserve you walked is absolutely beautiful. You certainly live in a wonderful area. -- barbara

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  15. I would love to explore this bog searching for sundews in the wild. Just as long as there are no mosquitoes.

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  16. So that's the difference between bog, fen and marsh. Thank you! Since our Cranberry Glades have Yew Creek running through them, I suppose that by this definition they are a fen. I am fascinated by wetlands and their ecology. A world of their own, to be sure.

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  17. The Gatekeeper butterfly looks like he's expecting chilly weather with his furry coat. The sundew is lovely. No wonder the insects are drawn to it. It's so encouraging to see that,even though England is a small country, many different areas are preserved in a natural state. Nice bank of ferns in the last photo.

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  18. It looks as though there's a good variety of things to see here. Bogs I'm familiar with of course living practically in the Peak District - it's walkable from my house. I've seen Sundew growing up on the moors and lots and lots of heather but must admit that I haven't come across bog asphodel. May be I haven'y been looking hard enough:)

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