WHITLINGHAM: December WeBS and aquatic molluscs

19th December 2021

Time for the final WeBS count of the year, and another opportunity to not see a Ring-necked Parakeet, which must spend a great deal of time in gardens at Thorpe laughing manically at me. There were six Shoveler on the Little Broad and the regular drake Mandarin on the Great Broad. I read as many Mute Swan colour rings as I could, and also spotted one of the locally colour-ringed Black-headed Gulls. There was a decent number of other duck species, mostly near the east end of the Great Broad - in total 253 Tufted Ducks, 152 Gadwall, 13 Teal and 110 Mallard (no sign of any Goldeneye or Pochard though).

 

It was another dreary day with not much else around, although I did find some Coleophora cases on rush (there are two species with identical cases), but I did go and have a look at some pilings along the broad edge having noticed some water mollusc records on iRecord. This turned out to have been worthwhile, as some Zebra Mussels were amassed along the edge, some open and feeding just below the water surface, whilst several Wandering Snails were also present. 

NORWICH: Catton Park winter fungi

18th December 2021

Suffering from a bit of cabin fever I went to Catton Park for a quick walk. It was foggy, which at least made a change from the rain that has been something of a feature of late. A flock of Pink-footed Geese were calling from above the park, otherwise a few slime moulds were of interest and there was a large group of Stump Puffballs, a fresh patch of Oak Bleeding Crust and a Wrinkled Peach, which I'd not recorded here before.

NORWICH: Train Wood aphids

5th December 2021

A damp walk along the river through Train Wood to Andersons Meadow and back. Level with Wensum Park four Little Grebes were on the river, with a low Buzzard flyover and a couple of Great Spotted Woodpeckers adding to the avian interest. There was a little bit of fungi about, but I mainly amused myself by turning over leaves, finding a couple of new aphid species in the form of Myzus varians on Clematis and Periphyllus testudinaceus on Norway Maple. I also saw some root nodules on Alder roots, which I think might class as a bacteria-induced gall but need to check that.

NORWICH: Earlham Cemetery invertebrates with Vanna

21st November 2021

Yet another rainy weekend, but this time I met up with Vanna Bartlett to have a look at some of the interesting invertebrates that she has been finding in Earlham Cemetery recently. We started off checking some gravestones for longhorn beetles (without success), but did find a couple of Orsillus depressus, a bug associated with Lawsons Cypress, along with the spider Zygiella atrica. In a different area we saw a very unusually patterned Eyed Ladybird (the biggest UK ladybird), the first time I'd seen this species since childhood. We then moved on to checking branches amongst leaf-litter for my main target, the harvestman Dicranopalpus larvatus. This species was new to Norfolk when first found here by Vanna and is still the only county site for it as far as I know. We managed to find both male and female specimens, which was good.

Exploring the rest of the cemetery I added another new species, Brown Larch Aphid (Cinara cuneomaculata) from Larch branches. A Parrot Waxcap (usually green) had started to turn pink, which apparently is something that happens after a frost. Across the other side of the ring road we followed some directions from Ian (mostly OK with the exception of a left/right mix-up!) to find a group of Grooved Cavaliers (Melanoleuca grammopodia). This was the first time I'd seen this species since 1995!

NORWICH: November fungi & Acleris logiana

Mid-November 2021

A spell of wet and murky weather in November meant mostly pottering about locally. A highlight came when Rose and I were putting the recycling out and heard a flock of Pink-footed Geese heading our way. There were 38, flying low over the house in formation and calling constantly to each other. "They're taking it in turns to be in the lead" she noted astutely as several of them swapped position at the head of the V.

The next day we had a walk around Waterloo Park, trying out the cake from the recently re-opened cafe (very tasty). The cafe was rather busy so we took it away and sat on a bench in the drizzle to eat it. Afterwards we found quite a bit of fungi including Redlead Roundhead (Leratiomyces ceres) and Lacquered Bracket (Ganoderma lucidum). The highlight however was a Grey Birch Button moth (Acleris logiana) found resting on a birch trunk, a new species for me.

 On my walks in to work I noted a Sparrowhawk flying over Wensum Park and found two new microfungi, Passaloria dubia on Fat Hen and Erysiphe howeana on Evening Primrose.

WHITLINGHAM: November WeBS & Italian Alder Aphid

7th November 2021

I had delayed my WeBS count until the afternoon because during the week the local Ring-necked Parakeet had been roosting in the trees on the main island. It didn't come in whilst I was there, so for the moment my patch list remains Parakeet-less. There was a welcome increase in duck numbers (i.e. there actually were some), with 72 Tufted Duck, 82 Gadwall, 1 Wigeon, 1 Teal and 1 Mandarin. Twelve Little Grebes, a Water Rail and a couple of Little Egrets were also of note. I stayed until dusk, listening to the Cormorants call to each other as they went to roost. There was an Italian Alder near to where I was initially standing at the bird screen, so on the off chance I checked some low hanging leaves and managed to find an Italian Alder Aphid, a rather odd looking species that seems to resemble a scale insect more than an aphid.

NORTH NORWICH: Broadland CP fungus foray

6th November 2021 

At the start of November I attended a Norfolk Fungus Study Group foray at Broadland Country Park, where NNNS are one year into a three-year monitoring project. It was very well attended, the downside of which is that people end up straggling out all over the place, with the positive being more eyes to look for fungi. I had hoped to see a few of the scarce birch species that have been found here in the past such as Ghost Bolete, but as that part of the site has been well recorded we instead moved quickly past the first compartments to spend some time in the damper areas further along.

The fungus list for the day was well over 100 species, although I didn't see all of them. Some of my highlights included Heningomyces candidus, Conifer Shield (Pluteus pouzarianus). the slime mould Leocarpus fragilis, Isaria farinosa on a dead Glow-worm and a very glutinous Yellow Webcap (Cortinarius delibutus).

There were a few interesting invertebrates seen too, in particular I had hoped to see the harvestman Nemastoma bimaculatum and one was under the first log we checked!

NORTH NORFOLK: North Walsham Omphalina

Late October 2021

Whilst visiting Dad in North Walsham we noticed some fungi growing from amongst mosses and liverworts on the drive. The first ones were Arrhenia rickenii, which I'd seen recently in Norwich, but there were also a couple of orange ones that turned out to be Cinammon Navel (Omphalina pyxidata).

WHITLINGHAM: Woodland fungi and selected invertebrates

Late October 2021

I took the opportunity to make a couple of short visits to Whitlingham near the end of the month. They were unremarkable in terms of birds (I still failed to see or hear the Ring-necked Parakeet that periodically visits from Thorpe St Andrew, but bizarrely did find a Guineafowl feather in the main car park!) but saw lots of fungi and a few invertebrates. Some pictures from the first visit below: Fleecy Shield (Pluteus hispidulus), Velvet Shield (Pluteus umbrosus), Shaggy Scalycap (Pholiota squarrosa) and a new barkfly for me, Stenopsocus immaculatus.

On my second visit of the week it was raining so I focused my attentions on the woods. I checked out the fallen leaves under a small patch of Aspens in the hope of finding the Ectoedemia that mines the leaves, without success. I did however find the equivalent species from Hybrid Black Poplar leaves, Ectoedemia hannerovella, which was new to TG20. Flame Shield (Pluteus aurantiorugosus) was a new site shield fungus for me (although there are a couple of previous records here) and I also saw a new springtail, the bristly Orchesella villosa.

NORTH NORFOLK: Cley and some Paston ichneumons

Late October 2021

Having met up with Adam in North Walsham we wended our way towards the coast, getting good views of Red Kited, Buzzards and Kestrels as we travelled through the villages. Our first stop was at a woodland near Saxthorpe where we had a look for some fungi, before heading to Cley. Having barely visited the coast this year there were a few common year ticks seen on Arnold's Marsh or the sea, including Dunlin, Grey Plover, Guillemot and Red-throated Diver, but the highlight was sitting on the shingle ridge as a flock of Snow Bunting flew low over our heads.

Rosy Bonnet infected with Bonnet Mould

Huge array of Birch Polypores

On our way back we stopped off at Adam's patch at Paston cliffs. The rather unexpected highlight here was a selection of different ichneumons, some found on the turf and others on Hogweed flowers. These included Amblyteles armatorius, Ichneumon sarcitorius and Stenichneumon culpator. A flock of around 120 Golden Plover were in in the middle of a nearby field and we heard Pink-footed Geese in the distance as we hurried back to the car to avoid a heavy downpour.

NORWICH: Arrhenia rickenii

Late October 2021

Walking into the city from Lakenham Way I noticed some small fungi growing amongst moss on a cobbled area. These turned out to be Arrhenia rickenii, one of a group of small species associated with bryophytes, often with widely spaced or vein-like gills.