YARE VALLEY: A sunny day at Wheatfen

Late July 2022

My annual summer visit to Wheatfen was pleasant as always, with lots of insects and a large emergence of harvestmen, with four species noted, three of them in quite large numbers. Highlights included a Sulphur Beetle (rare outside the Brecks and coast), a Bronze Shieldbug, a lacebug Derephysia foliacea, a Three-lined Soldierfly (Oxycera trilineata) and some Yellow Loosestrife Bees.

BROADS: Hickling invertebrates

Late May 2022

A family visit to Hickling Broad, and despite several squally showers we managed to see two Swallowtails, the latter of which flew through the garden near the visitors centre. My elder daughter enjoyed looking for caterpillars as we went round, with over 20 Garden Tiger and 12 Drinker moth caterpillars found. It was also a good day for Black Colonel soldierflies, whilst new species included Creeping Thistle rust (Puccinia punctiformis) which was abundant on thistles along the long track to Whiteslea Lodge, a case-bearer on willow Coleophora lusciniaepenella, a mating pair of Platychierus fulviventris hoverflies and the psyllid Chamaepsylla hartigi on birch.

Garden Tiger moth caterpillar ("Woolly Bear")

Drinker Moth caterpillar

Black Colonel

Cerapheles terminatus

Chamaepsylla hartigi

Coleophora lusciniaepennella

Fen Mason Wasp

Platycheirus fulviventris

Creeping Thistle infected by Puccina punctiformis

Wasp Beetle

NORWICH: A late May miscellany

Late May 2022

Another miscellany of Norwich sightings. Having seen pictures of it recently, I decided to look out for a distinctive grass called Water Bent (Polypogon viridis), and found it straight away. I had similar success looking for cauliflower galls on Ash (caused by the mite Aceria fraxinivora), which I located on an Ash tree near New Mills. Rhinoncus pericarpus and Rhinocyllus conicus were casual beetle finds in Wensum Park, as was a Black-horned Gem (Microchrysa polita) nearby.

BROADS: Golden-haired Robberfly and the same Deerfly again...

 Early August 2020

Next up on the family walk schedule was Hickling, where the reserve was open for a one-way walk aroudn the reserve. We hadn't got too far when some wild west-style hoof noises started echoing around. We stepped away from the gate we had just come through and turned to look. A Konik Pony soon trotted into view, pausing at the gate to look at us before carrying on and meeting up with two other ponies.

It was a sunny day and quite a few insects were basking, including Golden-haired Robberfly and a Marsh Damselbug. A Twin-lobed Deerfly tried to bite me but fortunately was doing it through a hat. Norfolk has three fairly common Deerflies, but whenever I discover one trying to bite me it is always this species.

In a surprising turn of events we actually saw some birds too. A Kingfisher flew across Hickling Broad from the viewpoint, whilt three Black-tailed Godwits followed a small flock of Lapwing over the reserve. On the way back three Great White Egrets were also seen at the back of one of the scrape areas.

NORTH NORFOLK: Cley NNNS walk

Mid-July 2019

As part of the NNNS 150th anniversary celebrations some joint walks with the NWT had been organised, mainly at Cley Marshes. These were all focused around a wildlife group that wasn't birds, so that if any birders wanted to develop their ID skills by looking at another group then they could. I had booked on one of these walks with Nick Owens, author of the Bees of Norfolk. The walk was intended to be looking at bees, hoverflies and grasshoppers, but with a knowledgeable group we ended up looking at all manner of invertebrates.

We saw a good range of invertebrates, including some quite scarce beetles, but the highlight for me was probably Flecked General, one of the large soldierflies that I'd never seen before. A handful of photos from the day are included below.

 Yellowtail moth caterpillar

 Coremacera marginata - a snail-killing fly

 Cystiphora sonchi galls on Sow-thistle

Flecked General

THORPE MARSHES: A scattering of new insects

17th June 2018

After completing the WeBS count at Whitlingham I nipped round to Thorpe to count there in case Justin didn't get time. It was marginally better than Whitlingham, with 2 Tufted Ducks, 1 Gadwall and 3 Lapwings of note. I did a quick lap, but still managed to see some interesting insects, mostly on patches of Ox-eye Daisies.

 Twin-lobed Deer Flies

 Volucella pellucida

 The alien-like face of a male Lindenius albilabris solitary wasp

 Colletes daviesanus

Fen Snout (a soldierfly)

WHITLINGHAM: Vis-mig 2 with added Hawfinch

29th October 2017

On Sunday I decided to forego the extra hour in bed caused by putting the clocks back and head once again to Whitlingham before dawn to look for migrating birds. It was a slow start with not much on the move, although I was pleased that the wind was still mostly westerly as the forecast strong northerly winds would have probably held most of the birds up.

Around dawn I saw Gary approaching. He asked me if I had seen the Hawfinch that flew out of the willows behind me and across the little broad a few minutes earlier. Ha ha I thought, until I realised that he wasn't joking. Even worse, I had seen a finch or bunting fly across as I scanned round, but as I hadn't heard it call I hadn't thought about it. Gary said that it hadn't flown high, so it might still be around, leaving me torn as to whether to stay and listen for passing birds or to try to relocate his Hawfinch.

Gary then set off for a walk around the site, starting with the south side of the Little Broad, so I stayed at my watchpoint for a bit. With just a few Redwings and Siskin flying over I decided that the best thing to do would be to check out the trees between the Little Broad and the river. After ten minutes or so I was rewarded as a Hawfinch called and I managed to pick it up as it flew off across the Little Broad. It had presumably been perched unseen in one of the trees nearby.

Filled with a mixture of delight and relief I decided to try to see if the Hawfinch had landed again. With no sign of it along the Little Broad I carried back along Whitlingham Lane, checking out the isolated trees in the grassland to the west of the broad, then on to Trowse Meadow. Here I encountered a problem, notably the river had burst its banks and flooded the meadow. There was no way I was going onto the meadow without wellies, so I headed back to the country park.

I decided to have another 20 minutes or so of migration watching before heading home, and had only been sat down a few minutes when I got a text from Gary, telling me another Hawfinch had just flown west past the conservation area. I still had my phone out when it flew past, straight in front of me and slightly above the treeline. Before leaving I again checked out the trees along the river, where an obliging Twin-spot Centurion was resting.

NORTH NORFOLK: Cley Dowitcher and Soldierflies

16th July 2017

On Sunday I knew I would have a few hours free after dropping Cathy off in the city, and I thought I would head out to east Norfolk to look for another one of my target species, Fen Mason Wasp. Those plans changed in the morning, when news came through that Jake had found a Long-billed Dowitcher at Cley. Whilst reasonably regular in the UK, there hadn't been a Norfolk record since 2007, so I decided that I would go and have a look.

Heading north out of the city the roads were wet, and as I carried on towards Holt it began to rain. Not ideal, but at least the weather wasn't likely to do my chances of seeing the Dowitcher any harm. I parked up at the visitors centre in the assumption that the east bank car park would be full, althoug as it turned out I could have parked there and saved myself a bit of time.

A small group of birders including Paul Woolnough were stood level with the serpentine, watching the Long-billed Dowitcher alongside a few Black-tailed Godwits and Redshank. It showed reasonably well, although the overcast conditions made photographs poorer than normal.

After a while I carried on past Arnold's Marsh and had a quick look amongst the Birdsfoot Trefoil. Six-belted Clearwing moths seem to show well on the equivalent plants at Minsmere, but here there was no sign of any. At that point I got a phonecall from John Furse who was on East Bank and asked how I was getting on, adding that I was about a month late if I wanted to see the clearwings.

On my way down the path I had deliberately avoided looking too closely at the plants as I knew I'd be distracted by the insects. On the way back I made up for this by checking as much Hogweed and Ragwort as possible, finding three species of soldierfly and a new hoverfly to complete a wildlife-filled weekend.

 Barred Snout female

 Barred Snout male

 Flecked Snout male

 Green Colonel

Anasimyia contorta

NORWICH: Return to Catton Park

21st June 2017

At the start of the year I had decided that I would take advantage of being quite close to Catton Park by visiting at least once a month to track the changes through the year. This lasted until March, then basically the amount of wildlife increased and I split my time between Whitlingham, target species and various other ventures. On Wednesday the weather had reached a warm but not stifling balance, so I decided to pop down after work for an hours walk around.

As it was the start of rush hour I decided that instead of crossing the ring road and heading to the Oak Lane entrance (a walk that would have resembled the start of Horace Goes Skiing), I would cross at the traffic lights and go in through the woods. This immediately paid off as I was only a few paces in when I saw a Vole pearing out of its burrow. It watched me, I watched it. After a minute I reached for my camera, and it vanished into the hole.

With the visit already worthwhile, I had a wander out of the woods and into the meadow, where there was a (probably seeded) area of wildflowers, mostly Ox-eye daisies. A number of moths were flying, but on closer inspection most of them were Garden grass-veneers, which look surprisingly big in flight. I did find a more interesting moth though, the Triple-stripe Piercer (Grapholita compositella). After checking at home I found that this was a new TG21 record, which was satisfying.

A detour to check out an area of bare sandy soil was interesting, because there was a large area of Corn Spurrey, which I'd only seen as an arable weed once before. There was also a fumitory growing nearby.

Back to the meadow, and several Merodon equestris hoverflies were picked out, as well as a Slender-striped Robberfly. This species, which like the piercer was a new one for me, holds its body in a distinct pose, looking a bit like a stubby damselfly.

A quick walk across part of the parkland turned up a few common beetles and bugs, and some dried specimens of Common Broomrape. I should probably make sure I return in July!

YARE VALLEY: Strumpshaw dragonflies & beetles

18th June 2017

Sunday was Father's Day, and as dad hadn't been to Strumpshaw for over a year we decided to go there. We arrived at about 10:30, by which time it was scorching hot and packed with people, including a coach party. We had a quick look at some moths left near the reception hide, crowd-pleasingly big ones rather than rare reedbed types unfortunately. A Swallowtail flew past near the cottage as if at the head of a conga line. We decided to head for the Lackford Run end of the reserve until the crowd dispersed a little.

As we approached the railway line I heard a Grasshopper Warbler reeling close by. It didn't take us long before we found a male Scarce Chaser perched up, but the bright sunshine and my lack of photographic skills meant that the body was completely washed out in my pictures. Eventually I did manage to get one where you could see the abdomen colour, but only because it landed at an angle. The blue damselflies were very skittish - the few I did see close enough were Azure Damsels.

I kept an eye out near the Alders for White-barred Clearwings, without success. A couple of small Swallowtail caterpillars were nice to see, and a Common Lizard was found resting on the boardwalk with its legs raised in the air, presumably to avoid the hot wood! Marsh Pea was also seen from the boardwalk. Another three Swallowtails were seen flying over the reeds, but never close enough to photograph.

We retraced our steps, looking for insects as we went. I saw a yellowy soldier beetle, one of a species pair, and having failed on several previous occasions managed to get a photo of the palps. They had a dark tip, identifying it was Cantharis pallida. There were lots of reed beetles, which I have got down to Plateumaris, but am still deciding which of two similar species they are. 

Back on the reserve proper we headed for the meadow. There didn't seem to be too much about, a slight concern as I'm helping lead a walk here in a few weeks time. The dykes were quite promising however, with lots of Norfolk Hawkers and Four-spotted Chasers, plus Hairy Dragonfly and Common Emerald. We bumped into Carol, Steve and Eddie and had a chat before continuing across the meadow. The final sighting of interest was a soldierfly, Banded General, which I've wanted to see for a while.