Club members met for a summer evening photo trip at Roydon Common near Kings Lynn.
I’d never visited this location before so I was intrigued to see what was here. It did not disappoint.
Roydon Common is a 194.9-hectare (482-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest east of King’s Lynn in Norfolk. It is also a Grade I Nature Conservation Review site,a National Nature Reserve and a Ramsar site.
It is part of the Roydon Common and Dersingham Bog Special Area of Conservation and Roydon Common and Grimston Warren nature reserve, which is managed by the Norfolk Wildlife Trust.
The common is described by Natural England as “one of the best examples in Britain of a lowland mixed valley mire”. It has diverse habitats, including wet acid heath, calcareous fen and dry heath on acid sands.
There are rare plants, birds and insects, including the black darter dragonfly.
We were here to see and photograph the heather, which club members in the know told me is better than the heather at Dunwich Heath. However, on first sight, it was obvious the heather had dried out and had a scorched look to it.
Never mind, we ploughed on and made our way across the common.
First up at the top path was a nice path providing a leading line to a really nice rowan tree.
And not far away, a spectacular oak tree was there to photograph with heather in the foreground. Trees are, in my view, an underrated pleasure to photograph.
To our left, and looking down the common, I caught a shot of this tree while the evening sun was cast across the heather.
As we reached the edge of the common, walking downhill, I looked back to get this shot of a lone tree.
Another isolated tree further down provided a nice leading line.
As the light started to fall, we were treated to a spectacular sunset. The shot below is one of my best from the evening.
Another shot nearby caught the amazing clouds too.
Further along the path, I got the following shots which look like we’ve just landed on another planet.
The final shot on the way back shows the path as a leading line and the last glimpses of the amazing sunset before it disappeared.
A great night out was had by all, and the common is definitely somewhere I’d like to visit again.
Onwards and upwards…