Saturday 30th May 2026 - Killed on the Road, Painted Ladies, Swifts and Privacy

You could hardly say our local roads are busy, with constant streams of traffic. Despite this, recently we’ve seen road kills when out on our morning walk.  A few weeks ago, it was a badger that never made it back home to its set and a cock pheasant that had recently been hit by a vehicle.  Last week there were five bodies, a blackbird, red legged partridge, hedgehog, pigeon and muntjac deer along the stretch of Mundesley Road between the turn offs for the High Street and Carr Lane.  It’s so sad to see wildlife ending up as victims of vehicle collisions.

2026 has to be the year of the painted lady butterflies. There has been an influx; the last time was in 2019 and prior to this 2009 when it was estimated eleven million arrived on our shores. One of our pyracanthas has proven to be very popular, with not only painted ladies but red admirals and assorted bees enjoying the abundance of flowers.  I tried taking a video of them but this proved far from easy as they frequently move from one bloom to another.  So far, it’s been a good year for butterflies; we’ve seen holly blues, orange tips, commas, a speckled wood, brimstones, peacocks and as already mentioned, red admirals and painted ladies. 

After spending the winter in Africa, a few weeks ago, swifts have arrived back for the summer.  First visiting other parts of England they have now reached Overstrand.  We see them dipping and diving above the village stores with their screams alerting us to their presence. It’s no surprise, therefore, that the collective word for these birds is a scream of swifts.

We set off for a walk this afternoon, with no particular plan.  Heading in the general direction of Cromer we then turned inland towards Northrepps.  Gathering height, at one point we could see the towers of both Northrepps and Southrepps churches.  On the outskirts of Northrepps, we took a path along the perimeter of the villages latest housing development.  I was surprised to see how small the gardens are.  Is this because, the smaller the gardens the more properties the developer could build on the plot of land or as Peter said, people no longer want big gardens?  Either way, there was little privacy between individual homes.

Today’s photo is one of the many painted lady butterflies enjoying a cluster of flowers on one of our pyracanthas.