THORPE MARSHES: A range of beetles and a rare case-bearer

Early June 2021

A couple of hours at Thorpe Marsh turned out to be very profitable for invertebrates. Dolerus aericeps, a sawfly associated with horsetails, was found on the permissive path, and was followed by a succession of 'new' beetles. Firstly the weevil Notaris scirpi, then whilst looking for Spotted Marsh ladybirds I noticed a peculiar-looking Monoceros Beetle, which was trumped shortly after by an Ant Beetle.

Whilst not as spectacular, in recording terms these were all trumped by a Coleophora larva, which Rob Edmunds identified as Sandy Case-bearer (Coleophora lithargyrinella), the first Norfolk record since 1874. Interestingly both this species and Monoceros Beetle are often found in drier, sandy habitats, but were present here at the edge of the grazing marsh.

NORTH NORFOLK: Natural Surroundings Rhagium mordax

Early June 2021

After over a year of avoiding busy places we now have a backlog of places to visit, and near the top of the list was Natural Surroundings at Bayfield. We took Margaret and had lunch before a good look around the grounds. A plant I didn't recognise was growing in the woodland near the car park, which was identified by Andy Musgrove as Fringecups. The undoubted wildlife highlight of the visit though was a longhorn beetle, Rhagium mordax, found by Cathy. For some reason this species has a slightly alien look about it and has long been on my target species list.

WHITLINGHAM: Early June insects

Early June 2021

A couple of early month visits to Whitlingham were pleasant but mainly social visits with others. Insect highlights included Anasimyia lineata, a 'beaked' hoverfly, Denticollis linearis (a click beetle) and Trypeta zoe, a leaf-mining fly.

CENTRAL NORFOLK: Buxton Heath spider wasps

30th May 2021

Buxton Heath is one of our favourite places to go for an afternoon walk, and even a family stroll down the main path along the heathland usually turns up something new. That was certainly the case on this occasion, where we must have seen about 20 Black-banded Spider Wasps, including one returning to a prey spider left motionless on the path. The spider Trachyzelotes pedestris was another new one for me, as was the beetle Onthophagus similis and leaf mines of the Pale Feathered Bright moth (Incurvaria pectinea). Throw in good views of Linnet, Stonechat and Yellowhammer, plus a flyby Cuckoo, and it was an eventful visit.

WHITLINGHAM: May WeBS - crow predation of Greylag gosling.

23rd May 2021

The May WeBS count got off to a dramatic start, as whilst counting the geese on the beach area a Carrion Crow picked up a Greylag gosling and flew off with it, flying across the path in front of me and dropping it onto the barn meadow, where it proceeded to kill and eat it! Whilst the Carrion Crows are an ever present in this area I had never actually seen them take a gosling before (and it wasn't a newly hatched one either). Since posting this observation on Twitter another observer told me that she had seen the same thing, and that actually the crows seem to have developed a technique for coralling the young against the shore. This could partly accout for the seemingly low number of fledged goslings this year.

Other than the gosling predation there wasn't too much of note, a brood of 6 cygnets had hatched and six Common Terns were present, whilst four Tufted Ducks were the only non-Mallard ducks. There was a good range of insects seen, including Aglaostigma fulvipes, a fairly common sawfly but a new one for the site, and a Stonefly (unfortunately not able to identify it to species level).

NORWICH: Mid May periwinkle fungi

Mid May 2021

The highlight of this weeks wanderings was to finally catch up with Subterranean Clover growing in Earlham Cemetery. Having initially walked past a large patch of it, Ian Senior was able to point out that I had almost been standing on a patch. Closer to the city I noticed some Greater Periwinkle with fungi on the leaves, which turned out to be a whole community of a mildew, Golvinomyces vincae, a rust Puccinia vincae and a parasitic fungus growing on the rust, Tuberculina sbrozzii. 

 

A couple of aphids were also of interest, Acyrthosiphon pisum on Broom and Callipterinella calliptera on Birch.

WHITLINGHAM: Missed Tern, new sawfly.

16th May 2021

Following the amazing find of a Caspian Tern at UEA Broad, Justin Lansdell managed to see the same bird briefly at Whitlingham. Unfortunately it didn't seem to take a liking to the latter site, heading along the broad and back to UEA. I given this flying about I spent an hour or so at Whitlingham in the hope that it would return, but sadly it didn't. Whilst there I noted a brood of six Canada goslings and three Greylag goslings, whilst the sawfly Monsoma pulverentum was new for me, and St George's Mushroom (Calocybe gambosa) was new for the site.