A Norfolk farmer who grew a stunning strip of sunflowers by mistake last year has recreated the colourful floral spectacle – this time on purpose.

Robert Hambidge has planted a mixture of seed-bearing flowers alongside his cropped fields as cover for partridges and a food source for other wild birds on the farm at Pudding Norton, near Fakenham.

When he tried it last year, he thought the mixture was short of sunflowers, so he added in a whole extra bag of sunflower seeds, resulting in a striking sea of yellow-headed flowers.

This year he planted the same mix without the additional seeds – but was still rewarded with another explosion of colour.

He was proud enough of the results to share a photo on social media with a caption referencing the Britney Spears hit: “Oops!... I did it again”.

“It is not quite as dense as last year, but it is still really eye-opening,” he said. “It was the same standard seed mix as the one I put in last year, but I didn’t add any sunflowers in this year.

“The sunflowers dominate the view, but when they die back they shrink to virtually nothing and you can see what else you have got there, including a bit of linseed, triticale and millet. But at the moment the sunflowers are buzzing with bumblebees.

“I am really enjoying it. If the climate continues like this some of us farmers will be growing more sunflowers and you will whole fields of them like you see in France. Wouldn’t that be lovely?”