BRECKS: Brandon liverwort & aphid

Mid-February 2022

Despite the miserable weather we decided to go for a family trip to Brandon Country Park, one of our favourite spots as it combines a good area for wildlife, a cafe, toilets and a play area. After visiting the latter three we had a short walk round, including feeding the ducks (although the Mandarin stayed amongst the vegetation, only emerging once it started raining).

 

I've been trying (and struggling) to get to grips with mosses locally, but am also keeping an eye out for liverworts (there's less of them!) and found some nice patches of Forked Veilwort (Metzgeria furcata) on the way round. The Norfolk aphid recorder had also given me a list of under-recorded species to look out for this year (although I was just into Suffolk on this visit) and several of them occur on Bamboo, so I checked out some clumps of Bamboo and found one of the three species Takecallis arundicolens.

Black-tipped Bamboo Aphids (either side of a barkfly)

BRECKLAND: Brandon CP - a parasitised cricket and other goodies

Mid-August 2021

One of our favourite Breckland locations is Brandon Country Park, so we headed there over the summer. The cafe was open for outdoor dining, so we had lunch on the tables nearby before heading past the lake and out towards the heath before looping round and back through the woods. Probably one of the most interesting sightings came early on when Cathy noticed an Oak Bush Cricket under a leaf. When I looked closely at it I noticed the eyes seemed un-naturally red and the abdomen seemed to have almost 'melted' onto the leaf. Having posted it on Twitter fortunately Brian Eversham recognised the signs of it having been parasitised by a fungus, Enthophaga grylli. Having flagged this up, several other people also reported seeing similarly parasitised Oak  Bush Crickets in different counties around the same time.

Elsewhere on the track we saw a Large Shaggy Bee (Panurgus banksianus) and the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespillo. Further round I checked some Broom and found the treehopper Gargara genistae, something of a Breckland speciality in East Anglia, whilst Cathy noticed some Buff-tip caterpillars.

Before leaving we had a look around the walled garden and saw galls of  Rhopalomyia tanaceti on Tansy flowers in the flowerbed.

BRECKLAND: Earthstars and other fungi

27th January 2018

It was my birthday in the week, so on Saturday Cathy & I decided to visit the Brecks for a walk and lunch. It was a lovely sunny day - haha, of course it wasn't, it was gloomy and cloudy like all of the other times I've been out so far this year. As we left Norwich it began to drizzle, and it then rained constantly for the rest of the time we were out.

Our main destination was an area of woodland where I hoped to see a new species of earthstar. Earlier in the year I had been discussing earthstars with Mark Joy, who has spent the last couple of years visiting a large variety of sites to find and photograph these interesting fungi. During this conversation it emerged that he had seen one of the species I'd not come across whilst in Norfolk last autumn. With most fungi they would have decomposed long before now, but earthstars often just dry up, which means that the fruiting bodies can be found almost all year round in some places.

Having parked up we entered the woods, and following Mark's directions I soon found the right area. To my delight the earthstars were still present, some completely dried up but others at least holding their form. These were Crowned Earthstars (Geastrum coronatum), growing beneath a cypress tree. They were all concentrated around the base of one tree, but as Cathy checked other trees nearby she found five fresher looking earthstars. These turned out to be Striate Earthstars (Geastrum striatum), a commoner species but nice to see. It is something of a feature that many earthstars have similar habitat requirements, so if you find one species then it is quite likely you'll find another there too. Cathy also found some Pearly Powdercaps (Cystoderma carcharias), which I'd not seen before.

 Crowned Earthstar

 Crowned Earthstar

Striate Earthstar - note the clear stalk and collar to the spore sac, and the clearly grooved peristome (opening at the top)

 Pearly Powdercaps

Next we moved on to Lynford Arboretum. In a short loop we admired the drifts of Snowdrops flowering below the trees, before moving to the gate to watch the feeders. Coal Tits and Marsh Tits joined the commoner species, whilst the sight of a Treecreeper on the ground was unusual. I noticed a hellebore growing beside the path so went over to check for leaf mines (now a well engrained habit!) and instead noticed some concentric circles, indicating a fungal leaf spot. At home I was able to identify this as Hellebore Black-spot (Microsphaeropsis hellebori). This might be well known to gardeners, but Tony Leech confirmed that there is only one previous Norfolk record, from Ted Ellis in 1956!

From Lynford we headed to Brandon Country Park. We both like the cafe here, however on this occasion we arrived just too late for hot food, so we contented ourselves with a toasted tea cake and an apple crumble tart. From the cafe window we could see lots of birds on the feeders, including more Coal Tits. Whilst in the cafe 'Weather with you' by Crowded House came on whilst the rain continued outside. Sometimes its hard not to think that there is a cosmic joker out there...

BRECKLAND: Weeting Moths

17th June 2017

Saturday was initially the date for a fungus study group foray at Sculthorpe Moor, but this had been rescheduled. There were a range of places I could have gone, but I had settled on a moth and butterfly event at Weeting in the hope of seeing some Breckland specialist moths. Cathy had agreed to come with me, although she perhaps regeretted it when it became evident how hot it was going to be. Two of the main species I hoped to see were Lunar Yellow Underwing and Cream-spot Tiger moth, rare and spectacular respectively.

The event was advertised as 10-12, so I assumed that this would be about an hour going through a moth trap, followed by a short walk to look for butterflies and day-flying moths. This turned out to be a mistake on my part, as when we arrived the moth trap had been checked and the species were neatly laid out on a table, complete with labels. We had a look at them, then were taken out for a two-and-a-half hour walk!

Sadly there was no Cream-spot Tiger, but Lunar Yellow Underwing had been caught. There were several other new species for me as well, including Brown Scallop, Satin Wave, Four-dotted Footman and Plain Wave. Festoon was also new, and slightly ironic as Gary had caught one in Norwich the previous evening and invited me round to see it that afternoon.

The walk started well, I found a new plant bug, Capsus ater, and Cathy found a Dune Chafer, a nice metallic species which depsite the name does occur in some sandy inland areas like the Brecks. A bit further on a couple of birders got a Stone-curlew in their 'scope for us. After that most of the walk could be summarised by the phrases 'very hot' and 'another Meadow Brown'. It was interesting to see an area of the reserve that I'd not walked along before, including a recently reverted field. There were quite a few Small Heath butterflies, Cathy spotted two Grey Partridges and a Brown Plume was a new moth to add to the earlier ones. Once we got to Hockwold Heath we turned round, and despite the heat made it back to the car in good time.

By now rather hungry, we called in at the Brandon Country Park cafe for lunch before heading back to Norwich.

BRECKLAND: Breckland Speedwell & Brandon invertebrates

April 2017

The second of my target species for 2017 was Breckland Speedwell, a species that I had looked for in 2016 but not seen. Once of the remaining Norfolk sites for this species is a roadside nature reserve at Thetford, where it grows alongside the very similar Fingered Speedwell. The verge is quite a small one, so Cathy & I set about searching for small blue flowers. Most of these turned out to be Early Forget-me-not, but I did locate a single flowering spike of Breckland Speedwell. This year was a complete reversal of last year, when Ian & I only found the Fingered Speedwell.

 Early Forget-me-not

 Breckland Speedwell

Having successfully located our target species, we headed off to Brandon Country Park for lunch and a walk in the woods. Outside the cafe I had a look at a hoverfly and found that it was one I'd not recorded before, Meliscaeva cinctella. A Rosemary Beetle was present on the lavendar nearby, a regular find here.

After lunch we went down to the lawn near the lake. I had been told that one of the Cedars that grows nearby had Cedar Cup fungus growing around it earlier in the season, but we couldn't find any. Some tiny Spring Vetch was found, and we watched a column of ants moving from one tree to another. Avian highlights of our walk included a flyover Crossbill and a Brambling, whilst we stopped to watch a hole in the path that Cathy had noticed and were rewarded with views of two female Tawny Mining Bees.

BRECKLAND: Brandon CP Bioblitz

30th July 2016

On Friday and Saturday NBIS ran a Bioblitz at Brandon Country Park, just over the border into Suffolk, as part of the second year of the Breaking New Ground project. Bioblitzes are very popular at the moment, and as a result experienced recorders tend to have to pick and choose which ones they can attend. I had been asked if I was free to attend this one, and as Cathy & I like Brandon we had agreed to help do some recording on the Saturday.

The first event of the day was going through the moth trap, so having said hello we went into the walled garden where Teresa and Tim showed several families the moth catch from the previous night. There were three Pine Hawk Moths and a Poplar Hawk Moth to please the children, along with others including Black Arches, Lesser Swallow Prominent and Scalloped Hook-tip. The most attractive moth in my opinion was a Maiden's Blush showing much more red than the ones I'd seen before.

Next up was a fungus walk led by Tony Leech. Again the participants were families with young children, so Cathy & I headed off into the woods and brought back fungi for them to see, Cathy finding more than I did! One of them was new for me, Entelome hebe. A Brimstone flew past, a Red Longhorn Beetle rested on some nettles and back near the cafe I found some Rosemary Beetles on the lavender.

 Parasola leiocephala

 Rosemary Beetle

After lunch we headed out for a look around the woods and lake area. There were a lot of dragon and damselflies, including Emperor, Brown Hawker, Southern Hawker, Emerald Damselfly, Common Blue Damselfly, Blue-tailed Damselfly and lots of Ruddy Darters. A robber fly has been identified for me as Golden-tabbed Robberfly, a species whose East Anglian distribution is largely restricted to the Brecks. Another highlight was the hoverfly Xanthogramma pedisequum, which had been caught and brought to the table for ID. We stayed until the end when we went round to check the mammal traps, seeing a Bank Vole that somehow escaped out of the back of a trap.

 Ruddy Darter

Golden-tabbed Robberfly

SUFFOLK: Brandon CP Bioblitz

11th October 2015

Sunday was UK Fungus Day, and we spent the afternoon of it at Brandon Country Park, just over the border into Suffolk. Brandon was hosting a Bioblitz, organised jointly with NBIS and Breaking New Ground, a lottery-funded project aiming to connect people with the landscape and wildlife of the Brecks. 

Bioblitzes are a relatively recent concept, and basically involved trying to record as many species of wildlife as possible within a set time period, usually 24 hours or less. They vary quite a bit - at one end of the spectrum lots of experienced recorders go off and get on with recording their specialist areas, whilst at the other end there are lots of child/family friendly events, which enthuse young people about nature but don't generate many records. This one was nicely balanced, with regular guided walks and events, but also a number of very knowlegeable recorders, many of them from the Norfolk & Norwich Naturalists Society.

As Cathy & I hadn't been to Brandon CP before we called in to the visitors centre to see what had been seen already. We then set off on a walk around the nearby woodland, paying particular attention to the fungi we saw. Cathy found a number of interesting species, the highlight being Green Elf Cups. This fungus stains wood green, but it is less common to see the fruiting bodies growing from it. I had mentioned this to Cathy when we saw some of the green wood, and she promptly went and found some of the small cups growing a nearby small branch.

We headed back to the visitors centre and added some of our sightings to the species lists, before stopping for lunch. After lunch we headed out to look for more fungi in an area near the playgrounds. Here we saw a good range of different species to our first walk, including White Saddle (Helvella crispa) and Elfin Saddle (Helvella lacunosa). As the bioblitz drew to an end we returned to the visitors centre, where someone had brought in two Pale Tussock moth caterpillars. We also saw a Bank Vole and a couple of different species of harvestman (identified by Andy Musgrove). When we left 254 species had been recorded, with more to be added as further identifications are made at home.