NORTH NORFOLK: A stroll on Bryant's Heath

Late October 2022

Having gone back to North Walsham to visit relatives I decided to take a few hours and walk one of my old haunts, the Weaver's Way down towards Felmingham. I left the footpath at the bridge and continued on to Bryant's Heath, where I did a quick lap and then back the way I had came. There were a few highlights - as I entered the heath I saw a micro moth flying weakly over vegetation. I followed it and managed to get good enough views to confirm it was a November Tubic (Diurnea lipsiella), a new species for me. After checking quite a bit of Aspen I found a couple of mines of Virgin Pigmy moth, Ectoedemia argyropeza, a new 10km square for it. Less pleasant was a ked fly, presumably Deer Ked (Lipoptena cervi) that landed on my trousers. These are rather odd looking blood-sucking flies (see Deer Keds on arthropodafotos.de for more information on them).

The fungal highlight was finding a large patch of Fly Agarics under some birches. Unfortunately they were spread out enough that my pictures don't do justice to what was a very impressive sight.

The last thing of note was several Apionid weevils on Broom. Having researched the pair of similar Broom-feeding species earlier in the week, I was happy these ones were Protopirapion atratulum.