After Friday's fun fighting off Purple Emperors, Saturday did not look all that promising for insects, so we decided to twitch the White Winged Black Ten at Fen Dreyton. Since we were last here, the RSPB has taken over and restricted access to the pits-a few years ago we were able to walk round the shore of one of the big lakes and found a lot of good birds, dragonflies etc. Today we have to view the lake from a footpath a long way from the shoreline.

When we arrived, the Tern was sitting on a spit with various other terns and waders, but flew off and spent a lot of time over a distant arm of the lake. At this point Two old friends, Derek and Sue from Rye Marsh reserve arrived. Luckily we were able to see the tern for some time before it appeared to fly off high to the south. It had in fact moved on to a different lake. Colin went to investigate and managed to get a few images of it before it flew back to its favoured stretch of water.

Derek suggested we visit a site in the brecks at Santon Downham, an area I had not been to for many years. We found the right clearing and explored hoping to pick up Woodlark. Well we heard them, but failed to see any-something that seems to be happening to me with this species these days. Several Tree Pipit were found and I managed to get a few images of one of them during it's parachute display.

There were a lot of butterflies here, mainly browns and skippers-the latter seemed to favour the stands of Wood Sage, as well as single Red Admiral and Small Copper.

Since we were nearby, I thought we ought to visit Thompson Common, where the pingos are the main place in Norfolk for Scarce Emerald Damselflies. We found lots of Emeralds, they were everywhere, but the only Scarce that I managed to see was a mated pair deep in the reeds.

Darters were starting to build up in numbers-Common and Ruddy seemed to be equally abundant, but there were few hawkers and chasers. Leaving the woods, we stumbled on a Marsh Tit which showed well, but the light was so poor I never got a good image.

Finally, we spent an hour at Weeting Heath, where after much perseverance, a Stone Curlew decided to walk up out of a hollow and show itself for a few minutes.