NORTH-EAST NORFOLK: The best of Bacton Woods

Late June 2020

In the third of our family woodland walks, we decided to go to Bacton Woods, one of my old haunts. Having crossed over one of the main paths we crossed onto a ride with a mixture of coniferous and deciduous trees with some nice dappled sunlight. There were some nice areas of bramble, and a Silver-washed Fritillary flew across the path (you didn't get them here when I was growing up). Further along we saw the first of many White Admirals, probably my favourite butterfly although I've not seen Marsh Fritillary yet.

Rose was enjoying herself, with some running backwards and forwards, bark rubbings and splashing. She even handled both losing a welly in some thick mud and a nettle sting with admirable stoicism. I found some nice insects too, including the micro moth Tinea fulvella, the hoverfly Volucella inflata, the spider Diaea dorsata and the longhorn beetle Stictoleptura rubra.

On the way back to the car I noticed some interesting galls on Red Oak, which I think are caused by Taphrina caerulescens. We had lunch in the car, where a Wasp Beetle briefly landed, and whilst eating my food I was watching insects on the bramble nearby. I decided that it looked like an interesting bramble so I took a series of photos, from which Alex Prendergast (the BSBI Rubus referee for this area) was able to identify it as Rubus adamsii, a scarce species in East Anglia but one known from Bacton Woods.

WHITLINGHAM: Soldierfly searching

4th August 2016

Tim Hodge had let me know that he had done some wildlife recording at Whitlingham at the weekend, and one of the species he had seen was a soldierfly called a Banded General. I've not seen any of the 'Generals', so after work on Thursday I took advantage of some early evening sunshine to go and have a look at the flowers along the riverbank near the woods.

Upon arrival I was saddened to see a dead Sparrowhawk along the edge of the woods. There was no sign that anything untoward had occurred, so after checking for rings I left it where it was and carried on.

There were Peacock and Red Admiral butterflies on the Buddleia near to the car park, and a Volucella zonaria hoverfly on some brambles. Approaching a lime tree with lots of flowers, I could immediately see lots of bees and hoverflies. A smaller relative of the previous species, Volucella inanis was resting on one of the leaves. A third Volucella was also present - I thought at the time that it was V. inflata because of the large black middle to Tergite 2, but I was concerned about the dark scutellum, and having spoken to the county recorder he says it is an atypical Volucella pellucens.

 Volucella zonaria

 Volucella inanis

 Volucella pellucens (more typically this species has a complete band)

With no sign of the Banded General I headed along to Whitlingham Marsh. Here I did see a new patch hoverfly, Chrysotoxum bicinctum, although it flew off before I could photograph it. Walking alongside the A47 I saw a new leafhopper (Eupteryx aurata) and a Willow Emerald damselfly. I was keeping a look out for a spiky shrub with fine-leaves that Tim had mentioned earlier. When I found it I noticed that one had green blackberry-like fruits, and wondered if it could be a Rubus species. This turned out to be a good guess, it was Parsley-leaved Bramble (Rubus lacianatus).

 Eupteryx aurata

 Willow Emerald

 Parsley-leaved Bramble

It was beginning to drizzle, so I headed back to the car, calling in briefly at the lime again. I saw a bracket fungus growing from an Ash tree along the riverbank, and realised it was Shaggy Bracket (Inonotus hispidus), a new patch fungus, to round off a productive hours walk.

WHITLINGHAM: Looking at brambles

15th July 2016

Readers who take an interest in moths or plants will undoubtedly be familiar with the concept of 'aggregates' of species. With moths theses aggregates typically cover two or three very similar species that either cannot be reliably separated from each other, or where to do so would require close examination of a specimen. There are some well-known plant aggregates, but unlike moths they tend to cover large numbers of micro-species. Common examples of plant aggregates include Brambles, Dandelions and Hawkweeds. These groups can be learnt if you put in the time, but the easiest way to find out what species you have is to get a friendly botanist to visit.

I had been wondering for a while what species/microspecies of brambles were present at Whitlingham, so when batologist* Alex Prendergast offered to meet me and have a look at the various plants, I readily agreed. Another fly in the ointment for bramble ID is that they can often only be conclusively identified in summer, usually around July, when they display a complete range of useful characteristics.

We met near the Little Broad, and the first bramble we saw was Rubus conjungens, growing up against the rowing club fence. A little further round we saw the first of many Rubus armeniacus bushes, the largest bramble here. I had previously sent Alex some photos of an interesting low-growing bramble from along the Little Broad shore and in the field he agreed with his initial ID, that it was a hybrid involving Rubus caesius. A bramble with nice pink flowers was R. boreanus and a fourth species nearby was R. boudiccae.

 Rubus conjungens

 Rubus armeniacus

A large bush in the car park was identified as Rubus vestitus. This one was covered with Violet Bramble Rust - perhaps this species of bramble is more susceptible, something that I will look into. We walked along the road down to the start of Whitlingham Woods, before looping back along the Great Broad shore. On this walk we added R. pruinosus, R. adscitus, R. nemoralis and best of all Rubus armipotens. This last species is only known from one other current site in Norfolk, so was a good discovery. Also whilst out I noticed a lot of green leafhoppers, which I identified at home as Cicadella viridis, another new species for the patch. My thanks go to Alex for sharing his knowledge of all things bramble.

 Rubus vestitus

 Rubus armipotens

 Cicadella viridis

* A batologist is someone who studies brambles. Someone who studies bats is a chiropterologist.