BRECKLAND: Brandon CP - a parasitised cricket and other goodies

Mid-August 2021

One of our favourite Breckland locations is Brandon Country Park, so we headed there over the summer. The cafe was open for outdoor dining, so we had lunch on the tables nearby before heading past the lake and out towards the heath before looping round and back through the woods. Probably one of the most interesting sightings came early on when Cathy noticed an Oak Bush Cricket under a leaf. When I looked closely at it I noticed the eyes seemed un-naturally red and the abdomen seemed to have almost 'melted' onto the leaf. Having posted it on Twitter fortunately Brian Eversham recognised the signs of it having been parasitised by a fungus, Enthophaga grylli. Having flagged this up, several other people also reported seeing similarly parasitised Oak  Bush Crickets in different counties around the same time.

Elsewhere on the track we saw a Large Shaggy Bee (Panurgus banksianus) and the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespillo. Further round I checked some Broom and found the treehopper Gargara genistae, something of a Breckland speciality in East Anglia, whilst Cathy noticed some Buff-tip caterpillars.

Before leaving we had a look around the walled garden and saw galls of  Rhopalomyia tanaceti on Tansy flowers in the flowerbed.

NORTH NORFOLK: West Runton rockpooling

August 2021

We had to wait for a sensible low tide time, but eventually managed to get to West Runton to take our daughter rockpooling for the first time. It was a big success, with an enjoyable mroning spent peering in the pools created by the ebbing tide. We were able to show her Beadlet Anemones, Periwinkles and Hermit Crabs, before heading back to the cafe to get lunch, which we ate in the car as heavy rain swept in. Along the cafe wall there were lots of weevils (we also saw some out near the rock pools) and several Staphylinids. The one pictured might be Philonthus cruentatus, but then again there could be other similar ones I'm not aware of.

NORFOLK: Visits to three Norfolk commons

August 2021 

During August I visited three of Norfolk's commons, so I have grouped them together here.

First up was Billingford Common, a place in south Norfolk that I had not visited before. The star attraction here is Large-flowered Hemp Nettle. We parked up in a layby along a busy road and walked through some long vegetation onto the common, and quickly saw a large patch of hemp nettles. Unfortunately it turned out they were Common Hemp Nettle, a nice but widespread species. We decided that exploring the area wasn't really practical with a young child, so we worked our way through to an open area where we could at least admire the windmill.

Next up was Alderford Common, where I spent a couple of hours after dropping my wife off in Taverham. This was a very productive visit, with numerous insects on Hogweed flowers including Banded General and Gasteruption jaculator. On the open part of the common I searched as much Wild Basil as I could and found my target, leaf mines of the micro moth Stephensia brunnichella at its only modern Norfolk site. A couple of micro fungi and four leafhopper species were all new for me.

Finally for my common excursions, following a meeting of the Norfolk Fungus Study Group at Bawdeswell Village Hall some of the group called in at Whitwell Common. It was very poor in terms of fungi, although we did see the grass fungus combination of Choke and Ergot. The leafhopper Evacanthus interruptus was nice to see, as were several Tenthredo sawflies.

NORTH NORWICH: Mousehold & Catton Park highlights

Late July 2021

A couple of early morning walks around north Norwich took me to Mousehold Heath and Catton Park, both very popular walking areas but each still good for wildlife. Highlights pictured below are the hopper Javisella pellucida,  White-letter Hairstreak (on an Elm near Zak's car park), a coccoon of an Elm ZigZag Sawfly, a pider-hunting wasp (Ammophila sabulosa), Six-spot Burnet moth and an unidentified Sawfly larva.

YARE VALLEY: Wheatfen galls and invertebrates

Late July 2021

Wheatfen would be up there in my top 10 favourite places to spend a relaxing few hours wandering around seeing what I can find, and I spent a morning there in late July, finding various obscure species including several new galls, an ichneumon and a Polymerus nigrita, a bug associated with Goosegrass.

Swollen seeds of Meadow-rue - a gall caused by Ametrodiplosis thalictricola

Golden-haired Robberfly

A pouch gall on rose caused by Dasineura rosae

Gambrus carnifax

Green Colonel soldierfly

Polymerus nigrita

The egg sac of a small spider, Theridiosoma gemmosum

NORTH NORFOLK: Fish & fossils

Late July 2021

A pleasant morning spent on a beach in north Norfolk looking for fossils with Adam. Having hardly been to the coast this year, a Sandwich Tern offshore was the first I'd seen in 2021. Fish darted about in sandy pools left by the tidy - mostly Common Goby I think. We found several fossils - mainly Adam to be fair, who has certainly got his eye in, and also some iron pyrites, which were the first I'd seen in the natural environment having owned a small pot of them bought from a museum or visitor attraction as a kid.

SOUTH NORFOLK: Gawdyhall Big Wood fungus foray

July 2021

Last year I had been looking forward to a fungus study group event at Gawdyhall Wood, a prviately owned SSSI woodland with lots of Hornbeam in south Norfolk. It had been called off, and postponed agai this year, but we finally got in to have a look around in July. We had a quick look in the walled garden first, where an Ermine moth sp. resting on apple, next to a vacated larval web, was almost certainly Apple Ermine moth, although they are identical to at least one other species so it can't be recorded as such. Some tiny Box Bug nymphs were also of interest.

 The wood itself was large and with few formal paths. There were not too many large fungi, but we did see a few bits of particular interest including my first toothed cup, Tarzetta catinus, and Hornbeam Witches Broom, Taphrina carpini. On the way back to the cars I found a Purple Hairstreak resting, always a good find below head height!

 

THORPE MARSH: Toadflax Brocade caterpillars & insect highlights

Mid July 2021

Thorpe Marsh is the more neglected bits of my patch, so I made an effort to visit this month. Before going onto the marsh I walked around some of the local residential streets to check out areas of Purple Toadflax. My target was caterpillars of the recent colonist Toadflax Brocade moth (https://www.norfolkmoths.co.uk/index.php?bf=22230). These larvae were first recorded in Norfolk in 2019, and so far have not turned up in my own garden, but I was pleasantly surprised to find them on the second patch of plants I checked.

 I then spent a couple of hours walking around Thorpe Marshes. Little Egret was the pick of the birds, but I did find an overdue target species, Red Marsh Ladybird (Coccidula rufa). This species has been recorded here before, but I also hope at some point to find the other wetland Coccidula species here. At the Bungalow Lane end I found a new bug for me, Salicarus roseri, and a bit further along there were some Caliroa cinxia larva stripping the underside of an Oak leaf.

WHITLINGHAM: July visit summary

July 2021

I squeezed in three visits to Whitlingham during the month, hoping to hear or see a Ring-necked Parakeet that had been seen periodically around Thorpe Island. If they continue to colonise Norwich at a similar rate to the past few years then I'm sure it won't be long before I see one here, but for the time it eludes me. Not much else to report in the way of birds other than a few Swifts lingering and a pair of Linnet, although two Canada Geese had some extra white on the face (thought to be a pigment deficiency rather than signs of hybridism with Barnacle Goose).

Interesting non-avian sightings included several Brassica Bugs (aka Crucifer Shieldbug), a Lesser Stag Beetle, galls of Contatinia solani on Woody nightshade and Eucallipterus tiliae (an aphid on Lime trees)