NORWICH: A few January fungi

3rd week of January 2021

A blank week in terms of new birds for the year, but I did keep up my record of seeing a new species of something each week thanks to a tip from Stewart Wright. Stewart had posted on a Facebook group about the lichnenicolous fungus Athalia arachnoidea, and on my way past some trees on the next road over from my house I noticed some pale rings on the lichen-covered bark. At a distance you might assume that it was just dying off, but a closer inspection showed that it was a covering of white silky strands that are indicative of that species.

 

A few other fungi were also seen in the week, a rather non-descript orangey-brown one that I've not pinned down yet and Wood Blewit in the garden, and Bartheletia paradoxa on some dead Ginkgo leaves in Waterloo Park.

NORWICH: Springtails in the garden

Late November 2020

A group of species that I have been thinking of paying more attention to in 2021 are the Springtails, tiny creatures that are abundant in leaf litter and soil, but also in most other habitats too. It makes sense to have a look for the larger ones first (and that is relative, i.e. 4mm instead of 1 or 2mm!). Whilst playing in the garden with my daughter on a drizzle day I noticed lots of springtails on the top of our gardening box. There was at least two different species, as some where long and thin whilst others were round, a shape known as globular. Sticking them under the microscope it turned out there were three species, Dicyrtomina saundersi, Entomobrya intermedia and Entomobrya multifasciata. No springtails seem to have many Norfolk records based on NBN (indeed the NBIS contribution seems to be only four records!) so it seems like if I do start to generate some records they could be noteworthy in a county context. The fact that I can find them in the garden. the local park and at Whitlingham also might come in handy whilst travel restrictions are in place.

NORWICH: Some mid-July garden wildlife

 Mid-July 2020

A few more additions to the garden list. Some aphids on the Flag Iris on our small pond were fortunately one of the easier to identify species, Aphis newtoni. I was particularly pleased with our first garden record of Anthophora quadrimaculata, one of the flower bees, that was attracted to our Viper's Bugloss. Whilst most of the butterflies in the garden were White spp, I was pleased to see a Meadow Brown. Arge pagana, a sawfly, was also new for the garden.

Next up was a common bug, but again one I'd not recorded in the garden before, Heterotoma planicornis.

A couple of days later and there was some more additions to the garden year list, starting with a Southern hawker flying briefly around the garden. Having seen some female Sphaerophoria hoverflies before it was good to see a male one and confirm that it was Sphaerophoria scripta. A Rosy Tabby moth (Endotrichia flamealis) was disturbed from the lawn. The most interesting species was tiny beetle, with a weird-shaped head. I thought it looked a bit like a trunkless elephant, whilst the books say it is like a monk's cowl. It was a type of Furniture beetle, although having checked with Martin Collier there are apparently two similar species.

NORWICH: Garden lockdown list days 85 & 86

DAY 85 - 14th June 2020

After getting brief glimpses of what initially looked like a small leafcutter bee, I was finally able to confirm that we had at least one Orange-vented Mason Bee visiting the garden. My pride and joy, some Viper's Bugloss purchased last year at Natural Surroundings, had also come into flower which was nice.

170. Osmia leiana (bee)

DAY 86 - 15th June 2020

Whilst out in the garden with Rose we watched a Buzzard soar over - it seems strange to think I'd not seen any up until this year, but it clearly is just related to the amount of time we have spent out in the garden this spring. I heard a family party of Long-tailed Tits nearby, which after checking was confirmed as a new lockdown garden bird, whilst I also found a Diamond-back Moth on the wall outside. I also noticed that the first of the Large White butterfly eggs that we had watched being laid had hatched.

171. Long-tailed Tit (heard only)
172. Diamond-back Moth

NORWICH: Last of the garden moths?

16th September 2018

As expected my moth trapping catches have tailed off quickly now we are in autumn, with no autumn specialties either. What might therefore by my last new garden macro moth was a Pine Carpet, and after checking the trap I found our first garden Corizus hyoscyami bug, which was nice.

NORWICH: A new spider (Philodromus dispar)

2nd April 2018

For people who are mostly interested in birds, seeing a new species is a fairly uncommon occurrence and will usually involve spending hours searching a local patch or bit of coastal scrub in favourable conditions, or dashing off to look for a rarity that another birder has found and kindly broadcast news about. For someone interested in a wide variety of wildlife, new things turn up much more often. For instance, I went as far as my porch and saw this spider - Philodromus dispar (thanks to Pip Collyer for the ID).