The Whitlingham Bird Report for 2023 is now available to download from the Bird Reports page or from here

NORWICH: Train Wood and environs

2nd January 2020

Our Whitlingham trip on the first had come at a slight cost, with a nail in the tire. Unfortunately I didn't realise straight away and the tire was unrepairable, but fortunately when I did discover it I was at my in-laws nearby, as I didn't have a torch with me so changing it would have been tricky. Anyway, that meant that the next day was spent taking the car in to have a new tire fitted. Whilst I waited I went for a walk in Train Wood, adding a handful of extra birds to the previous day's total. A Coal Tit called from a conifer near the entrance, whilst a Long-tailed Tit flock roamed the wood. Having not seen Egyptian Geese at Whitlingham I noted a pair across the river at Wensum Park. I made a note of some plants in flower and some fungi, including a couple of small Scarlet Elf Cups.


Next along the path was Anderson's Meadow, and whilst recording Phytomyza chaerophylli, a common winter leaf miner in Cow Parsley, I noted some mines in Goosegrass. I had hoped it would be identifiable from the mine, but Barry Warrington advised me that it was likely to be an Aulagromyza but ideally wanted to be bred through for a firm ID.


It was a similar story further along at Sweetbriar. I spot checked a few ivy-covered trees in the hope of finding a small green spider that Vanna has found here recently, but was distracted by some leaf mines in Pendulous Sedge. They struck me as similar to the ones that I saw at Whitwell recently, that had been parasitised before pupation. At least one here did contain a puparium, which I photographed and hope that will be identified in due course. I then took walked across and joined the Marriott's Way path for a slow walk back home.


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