WHITLINGHAM: September count and lots of Oak associates

11th September 2022

Highlight of the WeBS count was one Wigeon.

I spent a little while looking at an Oak, and found quite a few galls, leaf mines and caterpillars, most of which are pictured below. I also saw some Variegated Oak Aphids, including an alate (winged adult) which was a first for me, having only seen non-winged ones here previously.

Moth leaf mine - Tisheria ekebladella

Heliozella sericella mine and cut-out

Oak Marble Gall

Variegated Oak Aphid

Trioza remota galls

Stigmella sp. leaf mine

Oak Knopper gall

Artichoke Gall

Neurotus anthracinus gall

Smooth Spangle Gall

Buff-tip caterpillar

Caloptilia sp.

Coleophora 'flutipennella'

I also found a hawk moth caterpillar - Poplar Hawk or Eyed Hawk (it doesn't look quite typical for either unfortunately) being attacked by a wasp

NORTH NORFOLK: Galls on Turkey Oak

Late August 2022

A family trip to Pensthorpe. Whilst in the play area I noticed a Turkey Oak, and checking it found two galls that I don't appear to have recorded before (although I have definitely seen the latter in the past), Neuroterus saliens and Aceria cerrea.

WHITLINGHAM: Thorpe Walnut gall and marshes visit

Mid August 2022

A brief visit to Thorpe Marshes began with an interesting gall on Walnut. As well as the usual blister galls caused by Aceria erinea I noticed some small pimple galls caused by Aceria tristriata. There are no records of this latter species on the county database or in the two books about Norfolk galls, although I found out that it has been seen before in Norfolk - I've written a bit about this for the next NNNS "Natterjack".

 

Looking into one of the pathside ditches I noticed a Water Scorpion. On closer inspection it had just caught a Pond Skater, which I manged to get good enough pictures of to confirm as Gerris lacustris. There were two particular highlights of the visit, firstly a new sawfly for me, Tenthredo omissa (previously recorded here by Vanna Bartlett). The second was Tasteless Water Pepper, Persicaria mitis. I had seen water pepper here before, but something about it looked a bit different to usual, and as it didn't taste peppery I checked a bit with Jo Parmenter, who was able to confirm it was the much scarcer alternative species. Two Dasysyrphus tricinctus hoverflies were also of note - I have seen this species before, but only at this site.

OXFORDSHIRE: Silver-spotted Skippers and some chalk grassland

Mid August 2022

Mid month I joined Carl Chapman for one of his butterfly day trips, this time heading to Oxfordshire to look for Silver-spotted Skippers. Our destination was Aston Rowant, a lovely bit of steep-sided chalk grassland that at some point was unfortunately halved by a large motorway. It was during the spell of particularly hot weather, which wasn't ideal, but there was at least some shade around the car park area for lunch. The trip was a success, with lots of Silver-spotted Skippers seen - almost all of which kept their wings resolutely shut, but they did at least allow lots of closed wing photos.

The other butterfly highlight of the trip were the blue butterflies. We saw a few Adonis Blues, mostly concentrated in a small area near the bottom of the slope, but even more interestingly I noticed one had been taken by a robberfly. This was later identified from the pictures as Downland Robberfly, Machimus rusticus, a nationally scarce species and only the second site record according to the national recording scheme coordinator Martin Harvey. Chalkhill Blues were very common, and Carl found a nice abberation as well.

I had been keeping an eye out for Juniper trees, which are apparently common here. I hadn't seen any and was wondering if I was going mad, but scanning through binoculars spotted quite a few on the opposite side of the road. Other highlights were Pale Toadflax and a couple of galls, Mikola fagi on Beech and Aceria thomasi on Thyme.

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: Cley NNNS walk

Mid-July 2019

As part of the NNNS 150th anniversary celebrations some joint walks with the NWT had been organised, mainly at Cley Marshes. These were all focused around a wildlife group that wasn't birds, so that if any birders wanted to develop their ID skills by looking at another group then they could. I had booked on one of these walks with Nick Owens, author of the Bees of Norfolk. The walk was intended to be looking at bees, hoverflies and grasshoppers, but with a knowledgeable group we ended up looking at all manner of invertebrates.

We saw a good range of invertebrates, including some quite scarce beetles, but the highlight for me was probably Flecked General, one of the large soldierflies that I'd never seen before. A handful of photos from the day are included below.

 Yellowtail moth caterpillar

 Coremacera marginata - a snail-killing fly

 Cystiphora sonchi galls on Sow-thistle

Flecked General

NORWICH: Earlham Cemetery galls walk

23rd September 2018

On Sunday I was due to lead a walk for the Friends of Earlham Cemetery looking at leaf miners and plant galls. Heavy rain was forecast and we thought would put everyone off, but in the end a core of hardy participants braved the weather and gathered at the cemetery gates. Vanna had been looking at galls here recently and so was able to direct us to several interesting finds, whilst we also found a good range of leaf mines.

Gall highlights included:

 Eupontania pedunculi

 Artichoke Gall (Andricus foecundatrix)

 Andricus gemmeus

Neuroterus anthracinus

Of the leaf mines, Nemorimyza posticata was a good one, and Phyllonorcyter schreberella appears to be new for me.

As well as the leaf mines and galls we also saw a Juniper Shieldbug, late instar Megacoelum infusum, lots of Ant Woodlice and a Spotted Snake Millipede. Thanks to everyone that did make it and found enough to keep us interested despite the rain.