Yellow Horned-Poppy – acrylic by Vanna Bartlett

I’ve just returned from a day’s birdwatching trip to the North Norfolk coast to see the Western Sandpiper at Cley Norfolk Wildlife Trust Reserve.

To the seaward side of the reserve is Cley Shingle Bank. This used to be a high bank of shingle but in the last few years it has changed dramatically. A sea surge at the end of 2007 damaged the nearby beach cafe beyond repair and flattened the profile of the bank. It is now a gently shelving expanse of shingle.

But the Yellow Horned-Poppies (Glaucium flavum) seem to like the disturbance and there are lots of them between the reserve’s fields and the main part of the shingle. They thrive in this sort of habitat with long roots to seek water beneath the shingle. (View British distribution map.) The plants are poisonous, so don’t eat them.

Today the poppies were in their winter colours – dry, dead seedheads with rosettes of grey-green leaves at the base. But in the summer they will bloom again, their golden petals showing up against the leaves and the sunny skies.

Yellow Horned-Poppies – Winter

Yellow Horned-Poppies – Summer