NORWICH: Back to Mousehold Heath

31st December 2015

The last day of the year, and having dropped Cathy off in the city I carried on round and went to Mousehold Heath again. Having ascertained that I was in the wrong place when I looked before, I headed a bit further along the slope, searching birch trees as I went, and this time found the tree that had Plicatura crispa growing on (alongside Hairy Curtain Crust, Stereum hirsutum). The brackets were old, but still recognisable, including the gill-like folds underneath. Whilst looking at the fungi I could hear Goldcrests calling, and I picked out the sound of a Treecreeper moving through the trees with them. After checking a few birds I found the Treecreeper, and watching it spiralling up a nearby birch, which was a nice end to the years wildlife watching.

WHITLINGHAM: Last visit of the year

29th December 2015

On Tuesday I went for a final lap of the year around Whitlingham in the unseasonal warmth of December. As I left the car park a flock of Siskins and Goldfinches twittered from some Alders. I stopped to watch them as they fed high up in the trees. Further round I stopped near the slipway to check the legs of Black-headed Gulls for rings. Due to the number of people walking past, the gulls were staying mostly on the water, and after half an hour I gave up and carried on around the broad. Scanning across to the island I noticed a drake Goosander asleep on a log. It woke up briefly and appeared to yawn, then tucked its head back again.

From the end of the Great Broad I scanned across to Thorpe Broad. One of the things that has been done as part of the habitat management is the vegetation has been cleared from the end of the spit, and as a result it was teaming with birds. At least 45 Herring Gulls and 115 Black-headed Gulls were visible, along with four Cormorants and four Lapwings. There were lots of ducks on the broad itself, the best of which were three Wigeon.

There wasn't anything particularly rare in the conservation area bay, but it was nice to see it full of birds. I counted 120+ Gadwall and 3 Little Grebes, along with loads of Tufted Ducks and Coot.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Christmas to everyone who reads my blog, and best wishes for the new year.

NORWICH: Mousehold Heath fungi & bugs

23rd December 2015

Whilst looking at some local wildlife blogs recently I noticed a post on Sean's blog (The Autistic Naturalist) that mentioned a bracket fungus potentially new to Norfolk that had been found at Mousehold Heath. The fungus in question was Plicatura crispa, a small fleshy bracket with folds underneath instead of gills or pores. Finding the one tree that it was going on was always going to be a bit tricky, but Sean kindly gave me directions to the right area, so when I had a bit of free time on Wednesday I headed up to the heath.

Arriving at Mousehold I headed past Zak's and into a small clearing, where I stopped to watch three Goldcrests flitting through the trees. I headed down a steep path until I had nearly reached the bottom of a valley in front of me. I knew that the Plicatura was growing on a tree trunk that also had a Stereum sp. on, and I found a likely looking tree with Stereum and some gone-over small brackets. I assumed this was the right place and that I was just a bit late, but having compared photos of this tree to the one on Sean's blog it seems likely that I was just in the wrong place.

Whilst I was there I had a look around the heath, seeing some common fungi. I then spotted some interesting small bracket-types growing on the end of a birch log. They were gilled underneath, with cross-veins between the gills, which is a fairly uncommon feature. I got it down to a couple of families, and a helpful person from the British Mycological Society identified it as Bitter Oysterling, Panellus stipticus. This species, which is more common on Oak, was new for me, although it has been found on Mousehold before, in 1980!

I did see another rather interesting thing whilst poking about. I struggle to identify Dryopteris ferns, and so when I saw a Male Fern sp. I took a closer look to see if it was Male Fern/Scaly Male Fern/Golden Scaly Male Fern. In doing so I turned over some fronds and found loads of bugs huddling together in groups. I was able to identify them as Birch Catkin Bugs. Rather odd to see them on ferns, but there were lots of Birch trees nearby, so presumably they are overwintering amongst the ferns.

You may need to click on the photo to see the bugs properly

NORTH NORFOLK: Paston Way near North Walsham

22nd December 2015

Having dropped Cathy off at Tuttington, I had a couple of hours to spend nearby. I headed to North Walsham and walked a stretch of the Paston Way towards Pigney's Wood. Despite being mid-December there were still some jelly fungi about, including Witches' Butter and Yellow Brain fungus. I also stopped to admire a bramble leaf that contained multiple leaf mines (caused by larvae of the micro moth Stigmella aurella). On the way back a mixed tit flock was flying about near the birdge over the old canal, and whilst watching them I heard and then saw several Siskins, adding to a productive walk.

 Stigmella aurella mines in Bramble

 Witches' Butter

 Yellow Brain fungus

North Walsham-Dilham canal, looking towards Swafield

WEST NORFOLK: Flitcham & Roydon

21st December 2015

Having finished work for Christmas, I decided to head to west Norfolk for a bird & fungus twitch. My first target was the long-staying Pallid Harrier. I hadn't gone whilst it was at Snettisham, so I headed to Flitcham Abbey Farm in the knowledge that its appearances there were rather erratic. There were two birders already in the hide, having diverted on their way to a football match (presumably Manchester City v Arsenal). 

The birders had yet to see any harriers during their vigil, and another hour went by until a ringtail Harrier sp. flew quickly over the scrub to the left of the hide. It was too fast to get the telescope on, so we ran out and onto the road to try and pick it up again. As luck would have it the bird had landed in the field opposite, but saw us before we saw it and flew back over the road. Cautiously optimistic we returned to the hide, joined by another birder, and the Harrier once again flew up, this time soaring and showing side on. It was a Hen Harrier. It was nice to get good views of a bird I usually see at distance, but still a bit of a disappointment given what I was hoping to see. I gave it a bit longer, but with no other harriers and rain starting to fall, I left for the second half of my day.

My second target was a rare fungus called Poronia punctata. It is one of two small 'nail fungi' that grow on the very specific substrate of herbivore dung. I had failed to see the other one Poronia erici, which grows on Rabbit droppings, at Holme last year. This one grows on pony dung, and had recently been seen at Roydon Common/Grimston Warren. I had kindly been told about it by Rob, and it has since been the subject of an NWT blog post.

I arrived at Roydon and the rain and wind had strengthened. I had never been to the Grimston part of the reserve, but the map assured me that there was one long path that would take me to Sandy Lane, the boundary between the two areas. Accordingly I followed the path along the western edge of Roydon, which became a wide track. I followed it all the way up to the end, where it finished at a pig farm. By now I was a bit wet and grumpy, so rather than wander across the open areas in the hope I would end up in the right area I decided it was best to head back to Roydon, where I had seen some ponies. It turns out that instead of following the path, I should have turned off through a gate and across a sort of field area towards a folly. The map on the information board, a term I'm using loosely, didn't make that clear!

I walked a couple of paths fairly near the ponies to look for piles of dung, before my basic knowledge of animal behaviour rose to the fore and I went to check out some Hawthorns that I thought they may use as scratching posts. This was correct, and I found quite a few piles of dung of different ages. Despite looking closely at them, I didn't find any nail fungi. There was some other fungi about, including some small orangey spindles (possibly Apricot Club), and Earthtongue sp. and Blushing Bracket. The latter is very common but usually grows on willow, whilst here it was on birch.

WHITLINGHAM: December wildfowl counts

13th December 2015

Today was the final WeBS date of the year, so it was off to Whitlingham to carry out December's wildfowl count. Carol & Rob had asked to come along so I met them at the start of the path down to the Little Broad. There was still a bit of mist hanging over the trees, and I stopped on the way along to photograph some lichens growing on the curb - still to be identified.

We walked along the edge of the Little Broad, stopping to watch a small flock of Siskins fly over and a Kingfisher zoom past. A Grey Heron squawked as it flew across the broad. Transferring to the Great Broad we stopped near the ruin to get some more photographs of the Pintail x Mallard hybrid, which was still sticking to that small length of broad edge.

 
There were lots of birds on the broad, including the most Coot I've seen here this year (264). Two drake Goosanders were along the far shore but still visible with the naked eye (earlier in the day an extra one had been seen). The most interestingly from the counts was the large number of Grey Herons. We counted seven on the Great Broad, although one was probably the one from the Little Broad. There was another at Thorpe, making eight in total, two more than my previous highest count here. The combined Whitlingham/Thorpe duck counts were 87 Mallard, 106 Gadwall, 198 Tufted Ducks, 48 Pochard and 42 Teal. A Little Grebe, two Lapwing and another Kingfisher were also of note.

WHITLINGHAM: Pintail hybrid and fungi

5th December 2015

Most of the time that I'm at Whitlingham I am on my own, so Saturday was a bit of a change as I was there a walk around the Great Broad for Anne Crotty's birthday, along with about 20 others. Anne is a fellow member of the Norfolk Fungus Study Group, so there were a few other mycologists within the group and I was hoping that despite the time of year we might turn up a couple of interesting species. 

I arrived a bit early so that before meeting up I could have a look for an interesting hybrid duck that Justin had found in the week. The bird in question was a drake Pintail x Mallard, quite an unusual hybrid. I located it with Mallards along the south shore of the Great Broad, but it frustratingly it kept fairly close to the shore, where views are obscurred by the ditchside vegetation. It was also rather nippy when it did swim, meaning I only got one in focus and three out-of-focus shots of it before having to head off. I also had a brief chat with Rich Moores before I headed to the car park.

As many of the group were not particularly interested in fungi we didn't dawdle too much, but we did manage to record a couple of interesting species. I found a Peppery Roundhead (Stropharia pseudocyanea) which is a patch tick for me, and Stephen found a Crepidotus sp that has been taken for checking but looks like it could be Crepidotus luteolus, which would be something like the 5th Norfolk record and a site first. After the walk we headed back to Anne's house for tea and cake, and whilst there she showed us another interesting fungus, Hohenbuehelia astrocaerulea, which had grown on a tree in her garden.

 Crepidotus sp.

Dried out specimens of Hohenbuehelia astrocaerulea

WHITLINGHAM: After the cold snap

22nd November 2015

Following a mild start to the autumn it came as a bit of a surprise that the forecast snow actually fell on Norwich on Saturday evening. By Sunday morning much of it had melted, but the cold snap and the strong winds battering the coast persuaded me to head down to Whitlingham just in case a Little Auk had flown this far inland. It doesn't happen very often here, although much further inland Graffham held Long-tailed Duck, Great Skua, Kittiwake and Arctic Tern as a reminder of the possibilities.

I had a good look around the slipway for the Goosander, but it seemed to be absent. Quite a few Black-headed Gulls were perched up on the solar boat dock, all lacking colour rings. I didn't attempt to do any counts, but there looked like there was more Tufted Ducks than last week, and probably a few more Pochard too. A couple of Goldeneyes were also on the Great Broad, but as there have been up to five at Thorpe recently these are probably commuting between the two. A drake Shoveler was the first I've seen here this winter period (there were probably two females too, but visibility was poor).

By now it had begun to rain steadily, so I decided to loop around through part of the woods and back around the picnic meadow. I heard some Goldcrests calling and watched three of them feeding close by, never staying still enough to get an in-focus photo. There was still some fungi growing, including Brittle Cinder (Kretschmaria deusta) and Split Gill (Schizophyllum commune). The former wasn't a Whitlingham tick by virtue of some seen at Trowse Woods last year, but the latter was new.

Brittle Cinder fungus

NORWICH: A few more Earlham Cemetery fungi

15th November 2015

After my Whitlingham bird count I went home for lunch then back out, this time to Earlham Cemetery for the second fungi walk of the autumn. This time Ian was present, so he was able to show the group some different areas to those that we visited in October. Despite an overall drop in fungi numbers we still found a good range of species, including several that were new to the cemetery. These species included Toad Ear (Otidea bufonia) and White Saddle (Helvella crispa). A grey parisitic fungus growing on Crested Coral (Helminthosphaeria clavariarum) was one that I hadn't seen before, and there was just time to check out some buff-coloured Clavaria spindles that will almost certainly be new if we can identify them!

WHITLINGHAM: November count & Goosander

15th November 2015

Another overcast day on Sunday for the Whitlingham WeBS count. The most interesting bird was the Goosander that has been seen in the area on and off since the summer. It had been showing very well on the main slipway, but had been disturbed by the time I worked my way round, and I caught up with it a bit further east. 

Two other interesting sightings were a Goldeneye on Thorpe Broad (the 2014/15 winter was quite mild so I didn't see any here earlier in the year) and a combined Whitlingham/Thorpe count of 65 Cormorants, which is my highest ever count here, and possibly the highest count in general. Other species with reasonably high counts included 92 Greylag Geese, 67 Mallard, 133 Tufted Ducks, 157 Coots and around 300 Black-headed Gulls.

New species were rather hard to come by. Last time I was at Whitlingham I had noticed a leaf miner in Hazel and been told that in order to separate two similar species of moth caterpillar I had to have a closer look at the pattern of the frass (a posh word for leaf-miner poo). I did this, and it looks like this one is Stigmella floslactella.

NORFOLK - Heathland lichens part 2

8th November 2015

Weeting Heath is usually closed to visitors once the Stone Curlews depart, but as part of our workshop we had been granted access to some of the heathland. Whilst I waited for the rest of the group to arrive from Thetford Warren, Andy Musgrove showed me some leaf mines in the nearby Oak and Buckthorn trees.

On the heathland south of the hides we saw three additional Cladonia species to those seen at Thetford Warren, Cladonia foliacea, Cladonia pocillum and Cladonia rangiformis. A rare breckland species, Diploschistes muscorum, was also found in this area, along with some Wild Thyme and Toasted Waxcap (Hygrocybe colemanniana). On the way back to the car park I noticed a number of large Collared Earthstars, my 5th erathstar species of the year.

 Cladonia pocillum

 Toasted Waxcap (note the cross veins)

Collared Earthstar (Geastrum triplex)

Several of the group left, but the remaining participants crossed the road and went onto the north part of the heath. Our targets here were three tiny lichens that have all but vanished from the Brecks, now only found in an old sand pit at Weeting. They took some searching, but Peter eventually found all three target species - Catapyrenium lachneum, Psora decipiens and Toninia sedifolia.

 Psora decipiens

 Toninia sedifolia

Thanks to Peter Lambley for leading the workshop, Breaking New Ground and NBIS for organising it, and NWT for allowing access to Weeting. Further lichen workshops are planned for next year, so if this sounds like you sort of thing then keep an eye out for announcements on the Breaking New Ground website: http://www.breakingnewground.org.uk/events/

NORFOLK(ISH) - Heathland lichens part 1

8th November 2015

On Sunday I attended a heathland lichen workshop organised by the Breaking New Ground project and NBIS. We spent the morning at Thetford Warren, now firmly in Norfolk, but part of the Watsonian Vice County of West Suffolk. The main group of lichens that we were looking at were Cladonias. These are mostly green or greenish grey, and are the ones sometimes colloquially referred to as 'Pixie Cups'.

In a couple of hours we saw seven different Cladonia lichens, taking time to examine each for critical features and in some cases to compare against similar species. This was particularly useful, and I'll definitely be trying to identify some for myself based on what we were shown. Unsurprisingly six of the seven were new species for me.

 Cladonia ciliata

 Cladonia portentosa

Cladonia chlorophaea

Near the car park lots of fungi had been left, presumably remnants of nearby forays. Whilst looking for lichens we did see quite a bit more. In particular Moor Clubs were common and a new species for me. Some Common Bird's-nests meant that I have seen all three of the regularly found bird's-nest fungi in the past month. What might have been the most interesting fungus was some tiny yellow stalked blobs growing on moss, which several knowledgeable mycologists agree "looks interesting", but as yet nobody can name it.

 Moor Clubs

 Common Bird's-nest fungi

As well as the lichens and fungi there were still some plants in flower, including the tiny Bird's-foot, which I have only seen on one occasion prior to this. After a productive morning session, we then stopped for lunch before moving on to Weeting Heath for the afternoon.

Bird's-foot

CENTRAL NORFOLK: Whitwell Common

1st November 2015

On Sunday afternoon Cathy & I decided to go for a walk, but without a destination in mind I chose a site from my 'I should really go and have a look around there at some point' list. That site was Whitwell Common, a SSSI near Reepham. We parked up at the small pull in near one of the entrances to the common and had a look at the map on one of several professional-looking display boards. Despite being nominally a common we read that there was no specific public rights of way, but there was a permissive circular trail that was regularly cut. As it turned out, this was the most sensible route anyway as much of the site was quite wet.

There are quite a few fungus records for Whitwell Common, including Crimson Waxcap, but I didn't notice any grassland fungi, or indeed any dry grassland areas where they would normally grow. I did notice some Giant Horsetail growing in an area of wet woodland between a path and the road. This large version of the commoner horsetails is rather scarce in Norfolk - I had only seen it once before. As we emerged from the wooded area I raised my arm to shield my eyes from the sun, and within seconds a Common Darter dragonfly had landed on my hand. It flew up and returned briefly, before relocating to a nearby branch. This was a very satisfying feeling, somehow connecting with the landscape.

After walking through some wet reedbed areas we crossed a ditch into the woodland. On our left hand side was a small river (I'm not sure which one, but I think it is a tributary of the River Ainse). We saw some bright-pink seeded Spindle trees, but not much else of note until we were almost back at the road, where there was a flush of fungi. I heard a Treecreeper calling, and spotted it working its way up a nearby Oak. This was a nice site, and I'm sure in the spring there would be many more things of interest to look for.

WHITLINGHAM: Snails, trees, fungi & a moth

31st October 2015

On Saturday I headed down to Whitlingham, but as it was a sunny day and rather busy, I decided to start off in the woods. As I entered the woods I noticed some Norway Maple saplings. I had previously not counted Norway Maple on my patch list as it would have been planted originally, but as it appears to be regenerating naturally, on it goes (958). The next thing I noticed was a caterpillar inside a leaf mine on a Hazel leaf. I photographed this, hoping that the pattern of the mine and the 'frass' (leaf miner poo!) would enable me to identify it at home. I was almost right - I got it down to two species of micro moth, but have been advised that I need to take a picture lighting up the mine more clearly to be sure which one it is.

 Norway Maple

Mine in Hazel caused by a Phyllonorycter sp.

As it has been a wet week there were lots of snails about. Many of them were different patterned versions of the White-lipped Banded Snail, but I did find a new species for me, Hygromia cinctella, which I keyed out at home (959). Plaited Door Snail was another interesting snail, but one that I had seen in the woods several times before. There was a bit of fungi about, but not as much as there has been in the other places I've visited recently. One interesting species was the Fire-rug Inkcap, so called because the mycelium forms an orangey-brown furry mat, which is often visible on logs. Along the telegraph pole alley I photographed an adult Hawthorn Shieldbug, which I will add to my Shieldbugs species guide soon (currently there is only a late instar photo in it).

 Hygromia cinctella

 Plaited Door Snail

 Fire-rug Inkcap - note the orangey 'fire rug'

 Hawthorn Shieldbug

The next new species on my list was a Harvestman, Leiobunum rotundum (960). The males of this species are round and orangey, but they need to be looked at carefully to separate them from L. blackwalli. The key bit to look at is between the eyes, which is black on rotundum but white on blackwalli. In a hedgerow I saw the bright pink flowers seed cases of Wild Spindle. I wasn't sure whether this would have been planted or grown naturally, however I later saw it in a second location. The most recent Flora of Norfolk says that Spindle is "not infrequent on base rich soils", and given the chalky nature of Whitlingham Woods I reckon this is reasonable (961).

 Leiobunum rotundum

 Wild Spindle

Emerging from the woods I walked back as far as the island to scan for birds. A flock of Tufted Ducks flew east and most of the gulls had left the water and were circling around, making me suspect a Peregrine had just flown through, but I didn't see it. When the birds settled I picked out at least six Pochard and seven Great-crested Grebes, but not much else of note. I walked as far as the eastern end of the broad to scan over to Thorpe, but didn't see any of the Goldeneye that have been frequenting Thorpe Broad of late. On my way back I did noticed some very inconspicuous fungi, Slender Clubs, growing on some bark chippings (962). These could easily be mistaken for dead bits of leaf or shoots, and was a species that I hadn't seen for years, so were pleasing to see.

Slender Clubs

There was still time for a couple more interesting sightings. Firstly a brightly-coloured Comma butterfly was resting on some ivy. Probably the latest I've seen one flying, only a day off November. The second sighting was pure luck, I spotted a 'growth' on a tree branch and upon investigation it was a Vapourer moth cocoon, covered in eggs. Well camouflaged next to it I found the female moth. Female Vapourers are flightless, having only stubby vestigial wings. They emerge from their cocoon, attract a male by releasing pheromones and then lay their eggs on the cocoon they emerged from, often hardly moving at all as an adult! I think several other moths undergo a similar life cycle, but Vapourer is the most familiar one.

Female Vapourer moth and eggs