WHITLINGHAM BIRD REPORT - Sightings please!

It's the time of year when I start to bring together the 2014 Whitlingham Bird Report. As a result of the mild start to the year the number of species reported so far is rather modest, so I would be grateful for any sightings. Of particular interest are any locally scarce birds, counts or sightings of colour-ringed birds, whilst another area that is always under-represented is flyover birds like wild geese and swans.

Below is a list of birds that might reasonably be expected to be seen here that I have not heard about at Whitlingham in 2014:

• Bewick's Swan
• Whooper Swan
• Pink-footed Goose
• Red-crested Pochard
• Common Scoter
• Smew
• Red-legged Partridge
• Any of the 3 scarcer grebes
• Osprey
• Woodcock
• Med Gull
• Yellow Wagtail
• Spotted Flycatcher
• Mealy Redpoll
• Brambling
• Crossbill

As well as Whitlingham C.P. I include records from the surrounding area (i.e. Trowse Meadow, Trowse Woods, Thorpe Marsh, Whitlingham Marsh, Whitlingham Sewage Works) see the map below

To report a sighting you can either email me at: whitlinghambirds 'at' yahoo.co.uk, leave a comment on this blog post, message me via BirdForum or via Twitter (@Norwichbirder).

If you want to see what the bird report looks like then there is a link to the 2013 report at the top of the blog.

Thanks to everyone who has already emailed sightings throughout the year. Sightings posted online will have probably been added, but if posted under a pseudonym may not have been properly credited, so feel free to let me know if this applies to you and I shall add your name to the acknowledgements section.

Unless we have a bird-filled end to the year, the final report should be released during the first week of January 2015.

NORTH NORFOLK: Cley marsh & beach

29th November 2014

With Christmas approaching we went to Cley visitors centre to pick up some of Steve Cale's excellent cards and have a look around. After lunch we walked down to Bishop's Hide, stopping to admire a pair of Stonechats by the path. From the hide we got close views of Wigeon, Teal & Marsh Harriers, plus distant views of a lone Avocet and a pair of Pintail. Retracing our steps we headed back to the car and round to the beach carpark, stopping briefly to look at the Brent Geese along beach road. Looking out to see we got close views of a bull Grey Seal just offshore, and a Great Northern Diver was sat on the sea. The most interesting find of the day was an egg case found by Cathy. I remembered I had an ID key from the Shark Trust, so when we got home she was able to identify it as that of a Small-spotted Catshark, not something I remember seeing before.

 Stonechat. Somehow my camera changed to 3:2 for this photo.

 

Small-spotted Catshark egg case.

WHITLINGHAM: Rain, Wigeon & fungi

23rd November 2014

Despite the steady rain falling I decided to go to Whitlingham to look for ringed Black-headed Gulls. Last year there were birds from Norway, Denmark, Latvia Finland & the Netherlands (see then 2013 Whitlingham Bird Report for details), and this winter James Appleton has already seen several 'new' ringed gulls, including one from Sweden. As luck would have it despite loitering around the slipway in the rain I didn't see a single ringed gull. They are worth keeping an eye out for, and if you do see and report a ringed gull I would love to hear the details.

Deciding to move on from the slipway I walked as far as the island to look at the ducks. Two female Wigeon were present, an overdue patch year tick as I missed them in January. There was no sign of the Goldeneye, but Tufted Duck numbers had increased to 77 and Gadwall to 67. A single drake Shoveler, a pair of Teal and two Little Grebes were the other species of interest. Coot and Mallard numbers had also increased but I didn't count them.

The path along the south of the Great Broad was beginning to flood in places, so instead of walking back that way I went into the woodland edge and back across the picnic meadow. I had a look along the wooded edges and saw lots of fungi, including a large group of Tawny Funnels, scattered Yellow Fieldcaps, a Galerina sp (not sure which one!), some Tricholomas and lots of other small species.

 Tawny Funnel

 Yellow Field Cap

 Galerina sp.

 A twisted version of Pipe Club (Macrotyphula fistulosa var contorta)

 Crepidotus sp

Deceivers (I think!)

NORWICH: A bit more Earlham Cemetery fungi

15th November 2014

After hearing that there had been a fresh crop of fungi at Earlham Cemetery I went along to the monthly walk held by the Friends of the Cemetery group. Ian the cemetery fungi expert was on a course, so I helped out with the identification as we went round. One of the main attractions was to see some of the Earthtongues that are probably Geoglossum glutinosum, but also new to me were several Slimy Waxcaps. In addition to the Waxcaps we saw some Pipe Clubs in a different location to last year, and also some small Earthstars in a new location. They will probably turn out to be Striated Earthstar, but it will be worth looking again to check for the similar Beaked Earthstar (the light was too bad to inspect them closely or photograph them at the time)

 Slimy Waxcaps

 Unknown coral sp - possibly Ivory Coral?

 Earthtongue sp.

 Meadow Waxcap

 Fresh Sessile Earthstars

 Striated Earthstars

 Deceiver with an inverted cap growing from the top. I can't remember what the term used to describe this is.

Pipe Club

NORWICH: Rusty Dot Pearl

12th November 2014

On Tuesday night I noticed a small moth sat on the outside of the kitchen window. I went outside and potted it, and after double-checking confirmed it was a Rusty Dot Pearl. This is a migrant species, and particularly pleasing as I'd not seen one before.

NORTH NORFOLK: Holt fungi workshop

9th November 2014

On Sunday I went to Holt Hall to attend a Norfolk & Norwich Naturalists Society workshop looking at fungi on wood. After an introductory talk and presentation we headed off into the woods for a short foray. Many of the fungi we saw were typical woodland species, but I still saw three new species (Peziza micropus, Rigidoporus ulmarius and Fiery Inkcap, Lactarius pyrogalus). The latter was on the lawn just outside of the woods, as were two White Spindles. An interesting pale agaric wasn't identified in the field, so that may perhaps add another species to my list.

 Peziza micropus

 Black Bulgar (Bulgaria inquinans)

Rigidoporus ulmarius

During the lunch break I nipped out for a look on the lawns around the hall for grassland species. These were beyond the scope of this course, but areas of ancient grassland are always of interest. Anne identified another new species for me, the unusually-named Crazed Cap. I found a Parrot Waxcap, Meadow Coral and some Yellow Spindles, whilst there were two other Waxcap sp. not identified with certainty at the time.

 Parrot Waxcap

 Yellow Spindles

In the afternoon we had another interesting presentation, this time about the commonest fungi on trees and their effects on the host wood. All in all an excellent day, many thanks to Tony Leech & Anne Crotty who led the workshop.

WHITLINGHAM: November bird counts

8th November 2014

Looking down my Twitter feed today it appears I may be one of only three Norfolk birders to have not either stroked a Desert Wheatear or seen a Whale today. How strange.

Anyway, I went to Whitlingham to carry out the monthly wildfowl counts, starting as always with the Little Broad. 30 Gadwall were present here, mostly at the east end, but there was no sign of the Shoveler that had been here previously. Moving on to the Great Broad I stopped to scan one of the floating platforms and noticed a Cormorant standing on it. As I looked across it was joined by a juvenile bird, which was noticeably smaller than the first one. My hopes were raised that this was a Shag, but having got it in the 'scope the head didn't look quite right, and after giving it a good look I suspected that the small size was down to a mixture of natural variation and subspecies (sinensis are on average smaller than carbo). This was confirmed when I got back by Dave & Justin, so the wait goes on for that particular Whitlingham tick.

One of the downsides to doing bird counts is not being able to wander off and look at other things, but I did allow myself a quick nip into the woods to look for some fungi under the beeches. There were several species around, including Milking Bonnet (Mycena galopus). Across the river at Thorpe nine Snipe were visible, with probably many more hidden from view. In the conservation area there were a large group of Tufted Ducks (66 in total) as well as 18 Gadwall and a female Goldeneye. The latter may well be the bird that has recently been at Strumpshaw. Two Little Grebes and a Great Black-backed Gull were also of note.

30 THINGS: 12/30 - Merveille de Jour and other moths

2nd November 2014

For a number of years one of the moths I was most interested in seeing was the Merveille de Jour, a green-and-black patterned moth that can be found in the autumn. I've never caught one, and regular lament the fact. Last night I was making one of my regular mothy complaints when David Norgate announced that he had just caught one if I was interested. I certainly was, so Cathy and I headed round on Sunday morning and weren't disappointed by the Merveille de Jour, which was excellent. David has also kindly kept some other moths from the previous night, including a December Moth, Spruce Carpet and Green-brindled Crescent, all of which were also new moths for me

 At last! Merveille de Jour

Green-brindled Crescent

December Moth - stubbier than I had imagined!

NORWICH: Blair's Shoulder Knot

1st November 2014

After our Sutton Hoo visit we popped round to Margaret's house, where we were greeted with the news that she had found a moth on the wall and had potted it for us. This turned out to be a good decision as it was a Blair's Shoulder Knot, a new moth for me (although I think I've seen the caterillar before). We stayed and put the moth trap out in the evening, but as is usually the case here in autumn we didn't catch any macros (3 Light Brown Apple Moths and a Diamond-back Moth were the micros).

SUFFOLK: Sutton Hoo

1st November 2014

For a bit of a change (and to avoid the swarms of autograph hunters following my mention on Friday's Autumnwatch Unsprung) Cathy & I went into Suffolk to visit Sutton Hoo. We visited the main exhibition hall first and then had lunch before heading out to the burial mounds. The scenery on the walk out was beautiful, with hills rolling down to the river Deben. There was a fine crop of fungi too, including lots of Fly Agarics and Parasols. At the mounds themselves Cathy found at least another ten species, along with a Fox Moth caterpillar crossing the path.