WHITLINGHAM: January WeBS and a second patch tick of the year

23rd January 2022

The first WeBS count of the year, and I spent some time around the slipway ring reading, managing 13 Mute Swans, one Greylag Goose, one Barnacle Goose and three Black-headed Gulls. All ringed here or across the river at Thorpe, but at least the sightings are gradually building up a picture that will hopefully be added to when some of them disperse in spring.

Duck numbers were mostly quite low, although 55 Teal was a decent count. Otherwise there was the regular drake Mandarin, 87 Gadwall, 88 Mallard, 10 Shoveler, 4 Pochard and 188 Tufted Duck. The recent Goldeneye and Shag appeared to have departed. There were a few bits and pieces that I hadn't noted on my first couple of patch visits here this year, including a brief snatch of Cetti's Warbler song, a Kingfisher and a Lesser Redpoll.

Of later I have been doing my wildfowl counts in the afternoon rather than the morning so that I can wait until dusk in the hope of seeing a Ring-necked Parakeet that sometimes roosts on the island. I was in position again, and noted how white some of the trees on the island looked (presumably Cormorant guano, which although in some parts of the world is used as a fertiliser, here appears to be killing the trees). At about 16:05 I heard what sounded like a distant Parakeet call. A second call reassured me that it wasn't my imagination, and I managed to pick up the Ring-necked Parakeet in flight and track it as it flew across the island and into the top of a spindly tree. Once perched up it remained silent - had I been distracted or it been a bit noisier I would have probably missed it again, but as it happened I didn't, and I had my second patch tick of the year before the end of January (the pessimist in me says that this just cancels out the two Redpolls that appear to be primed for removal from the IOC list sooner rather than later...).

As with the past couple of years I expect that much of my wildlife recording will be carried out around Norwich in 2022, so I intend spending some time on my more neglected groups including Mosses and lichens. With this in mind I photographed a nice foliose lichen on a willow tree on my way round but haven't yet identified it. It's rather like a dark Punctelia subreducta, but I don't think the underside should be this dark a shade of brown if its that species.

MID NORFOLK: New fungi and much more at Foxley Wood

15th January 2022

The fungus study group don't usually hold a field meeting during January but were convinced to do so this year. This proved to be both a popular and productive decision, with around 30 members meeting up and recording around 120 species. As you would expect for the time of year much of these were either growing on wood or were microfungi on plants, but there were interesting examples of each. It looks like at least two of my finds turned out to be new for Norfolk - a young specimen of an oysterling with brown hair tufts on the cap was Scaly Oysterling (Crepidotus calolepis) and some small clear wart-like growths on Exidia plana were the mycoparasitic fungus Heteromycophaga glandulosae, whilst some small cocoa-bean like growths on an Ash branch were Hysterographium fraxini were also of note.

At a foray last year Stewart Wright had introduced us to the tiny black 'sundial' like projections under Alder leaves caused by Ophiognomonia alni-viridis. After he found the related species Gnomonia gnomon on Hazel leaves I asked if there were any others we should be looking for, and we managed another two - Ophiognomonia setacea on Oak and O. intermedia on Silver Birch. There is also a rare/under-recorded one on dead Rose leaves for me to look for elsewhere.

Foxley is an excellent reserve for many groups of species, and Rob Yaxley kindly pointed out some bryophytes as we went round, including the liverwort Conocephalum conicum and Big Shaggy-moss Rhytidiadelphus triquestris. Rob also identified a millipede that I'd spotted underneath a fallen branch as Brachydesmus superus.

New macro moths are always a bonus, and having seen a rather tatty specimen on the ground I was pleased when someone found a fresher looking Spring Usher. There was a new micro moth species too, when Stewart found an occupied leaf mine in Greater Stitchwort containing the larva of Three-colour Groundling, Caryocolum tricolorella. The light was beginning to fade as we walked back to the cars, allowing several group members to use their UV torches to illustrate the luminescence of Sulphur Tuft.

NORWICH: A few more local birds and a pond springtail

Mid-January 2022

I continued to add a number of common bird species on my walks to work (still too dark on the way home to add anything then). Singing Song Thrush plus Goldcrest, Greenfinch, Coal Tit and Grey Wagtail were some of the local highlights, capped with a flock of about 100 Pink-footed Geese that flew over Waterloo Park on 12th Jan.

Elsewhere I noticed some tiny springtails on the surface of some garden pond water, which under a microscope turned out to be an apparently common species but one I'd never noticed/identified before, Sminthurides aquaticus. You can see some excellent pictures of them on the blog here: https://www.chaosofdelight.org/blog/springtail-of-the-month-sminthurides-aquaticus/31/8/2020

WHITLINGHAM BIRD REPORT 2021

The Whitlingham Bird Report 2021 is available to download now 

A big thank you to everyone that reports bird sightings from the area, either directly, to the bird news services in the case of scarce species, or via local WhatsApp groups, eBird etc. When I first put together a bird report in 2012 I had no idea if other people would be interested to read it, so I'm glad that ten years in people are still reading them!

 

For reports from previous years (2012-2020) see the links on the Whitlingham Bird Report page

WHITLINGHAM: Still no parakeet but a Phalacrocorax bonus

3rd January 2022

I had planned to make an afternoon visit to Whitlingham in the hope of seeing the Ring-necked Parakeet fly in to roost, but the visit was given extra interest with news that Drew had found a Shag on the Great Broad. I arrived to the dreaded words "it was on the broad over there, but I've not seen it for about 20 minutes now..." but fortunately after a quick scan of the far end I noticed it perched up on some cut trees, just off the edge of the island. Shag was a patch tick for me (#156), with the only other one I've seen in Norwich back in February 2013 when I found one along the river in the city centre one morning. Whilst scanning I picked up a couple of birds I'd missed on 1st Jan, Pochard and Great Crested Grebe.

After spending a bit of time watching the Shag I decided to take a slow walk around the meadow, and found a couple of new species in the form of a (relatively!) large springtail, Pogonognathellus longicornis and a lichenicolous fungus, Unguiculariopsis thallophila. I then called in at the slipway and read some more Mute Swan rings before heading back into position near the island. A few Redwings called as they flew over, and a Siskin was in one of the remaining Alder trees that had survived the rather dramatic looking cutting. I watched around 220 Jackdaws swirling about before they settled down to roost, but yet again there was no sign of the parakeet, which has firmly cemented itself as my bogey bird here. Still, one new patch bird in the first week of the year is still a positive start.

WHITLINGHAM: New year birding

1st January 2022

Gusty winds outside restricted my living room window start to the year to seven species - Woodpigeon, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Blackbird, Starling, Collared Dove and Black-headed Gull. We then went for a family visit to Whitlingham,and whilst feeding the ducks I managed to read ten Mute Swan rings and one Black-headed Gull ring. Highlights included Little Egret, Shoveler, Wigeon and Goldeneye (the latter seen distantly through Justin's telescope having met him part way round). We also noticed an unusual looking skull, which I assume by a process of elimination must be Pike, but am open to ideas. On the way back a Nuthatch called from the picnic meadow.

NORWICH: Last trip of the year - Earlham Cemetery for more fungi

27th December 2021

My last trip out of 2021 was to Earlham Cemetery where I met up with Ian Senior to have a look at a interesting patch of fungi that he had found there. They look superificially like Psathyrella but the gill arrangement is rather distorted. It might turn out that this was caused by some sort of infection, but it was certainly worth a look. Whilst there I noticed some Sweet Chestnut leaves with microfungi on them, which Stewart Wright identified as Ramularia endophylla and Camarosporium oreades. I noticed some webs on a Phellinus pomaceus bracket, probably caused by either a fungus gnat or a species of Thrip. On the mossy walls at the edge of the cemetery Ian pointed out some Arrhenia rickenii, and I noticed next to them some tiny specimens of Small Moss Oysterling, Arrhenia retiruga.