6th June 2024
I follow several people on social media who have an interest in plant fungi, and one of them had found a downy mildew on hops recently called Pseudoperonospora humuli. I knew there was a big patch of hops in Waterloo Park, so called in and found it there. It looks rather unremarkable in the field, but interesting under the microscope!
Late May 2024
A few species of note from my walks around Norwich. On my way home one day I checked a large hybrid Black Poplar and found occupied leaf mines of the sawfly Fenusella hortulana, which appears to be new to Norfolk. In Train Wood I saw the bug Closterotomus trivialis. I thought I had seen this before, but I can't find a record of it so it is presumably a new one for me. Whilst taking my youngest daughter to a local park I found a smut fungus called Ustilago bullata on Bromus hordaceus. It seemed to be new to Norfolk, but I have since been told there are a couple of old records under a different name that hadn't made it into the county database.
2nd March 2024
The NWT reserve at Sweet Briar Marshes is yet to formally open to the public, but has been running events for the past year or so. I took my eldest daughter along to this one, which was to show young people the British White cattle that are now grazing the site with the aid of GPS collars. Unfortunately they had moved off onto the wetter parts of the site, so we did see them but always from a distance. There were plenty of tracks and signs to look for too, including Fox scat, deer footprints and mole hills.
January 2024
A brief summary of the rest of January. Other than the two Whitlingham visits I didn't have any other dedicated wildlife-watching time. I saw one new species, a scale insect on Viburnum tinus called Lichtensia viburni. Whilst checking the host plant, which is widely planted in gardens and hedges around Norwich, I noticed that lots of leaves were a silvery colour. This is apparently caused by a species of Thrips called Heliothrips haemorrhoidalis. I've not found any so far, presumably they don't overwinter as adults this far north, but will be checking again later in the spring.
In terms of birds, in addition to those seen on January 1st or at Whitlingham I added Rook to my year list from the car whilst on a family trip to King's Lynn museum and the following: Kingfisher, Long-tailed Tit, Stock Dove (Wensum Park), Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Goldcrest, Coal Tit (Waterloo Park), Jay (Lakenham Way) and Grey Wagtail (Norwich city centre), so by the end of the month I had seen 47 birds at Whitlingham and 60 overall.
Early March 2023
Random observations from the start of the month included a Muntjac Deer in Train Wood (I've seen them in Earlham and Rosary Cemeteries but not in Train Wood before) and a Mistle Thrush in Wensum Park one morning. The woodland area at Wensum Park underwent some quite drastic clearance, but all as part of a plan with the Norwich Fringe Project, which includes a new path and planting of a mixture of native trees. On the 3rd a brood of Egyptian Geese were watched walking in front of the diggers. fortunately they had fledged in time (this species nests in trees early in the year). Unfortunately a few days later they were down to two goslings, and the week after there were none.
25th February 2023
A rainy weekend, but to get out of the house for an hour or so I popped down to Sweetbriar Marshes. As the NWT land hasn't been opened to the public yet I made do with walking along the Marriott's Way edge, hearing a drone overhead presumably taking some pictures or doing some mapping. One patch of the bank up to the new land looked quite interesting, with a big patch of Bank Haircap moss and Bifid Crestwort. I also saw some Broom on sandy ground next to a path leading north away from the site. I had a look at it hoping for some psyllids, which I am now more actively searching for, not finding any but seeing the weevil Andrion regenstienense and the spider Mangora acalypha. I think the latter is a new 10km square record.
Early February 2023
A few random sightings whilst walking around Norwich. In Wensum Park I had a closer look at some pale 'splats' on the concrete step handrails and think that the lichen involved is Aspicilia calcarea, which would be a new one for me. I hunted around for two of Leif Bersweden's 'Couch to 10 mosses' species - Common Tamarisk Moss (Thuidium tamariscinum) and Springy Turf Moss (Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus). I couldn't find the former, which is more associated with woodland, but did manage to find the latter in St Augustine's Churchyard. Whilst looking for the tamarisk moss I did find lots of Common Feather-moss (Kindbergia praelongia). Back at home some aphids had started to appear on the outside of the house. The small ones were Cinara tujafilina (this is a species associated with cypresses - I mistakenly thought these were Cinara cupressi nymphs when I first saw them last year) and some very large (for aphids) Cinara confinis.
1st week of January 2023
I saw in the new year at home, 'celebrating' the stroke of midnight by trying to get my daughter back to sleep after people inexplicably began letting off fireworks from about 22:30. This inauspicious start continued later in the morning - usually I get my year list off to a nice start with 10-15 species seen from the living room window, but this year it was a paltry five, Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, Starling, Blackbird and Black-headed Gull.
We had a quick family walk at Whitlingham, racking up about 20 species, including Little Egret, Little Grebe and three colour-ringed Black-headed Gulls.
Over the next few days a steady flow of common birds were added - House Sparrow, Feral Pigeon and Jackdaw at my inlaws in south Norwich, a flock of Pink-footed Geese over the city centre on 3rd, Goldcrest, Wren and Jay at New Mills and a Song Thrush along Lakenham Way. I also heard and then spotted an Egyptian Goose high up on the office block on Queens Road, quite a way from water.
Late December 2022
It had been a while since I'd visited Earlham Cemetery, so I called in on the way to Whitlingham for a quick look around. I failed to find any barkflies, which was the main thing I was looking for, but I did find some beetles including one of the inconspicuous ladybirds, Rhyzobius lophanthae, and a new species for me the tiny Cartodere bifasciata.
Early November 2022
The silver lining to several hospital visits at the start of the month was noticing quite a bit of fungi between the wards and the car parks, and also Henbit Dead-nettle, which was apparently a new species for me. The most frustrating of the fungi were some cracked Paxillus species associated with Oak and Hornbeam. By rights these should not be Paxillus involutus, which is apparently found in woodland, usually with birch, but I was unable to get these to fit any of the alternative species.
Paxillus sp.
Mid-October 2022
On the way home one evening I cut through a small wood and had a look for insects on an Elm leaf. I spotted several young aphids, but nearby was an alate (winged adult). I was able to identify it as Japanese Elm Aphid (Tinocallis takachihoensis), a new species for me. My pictures aren't very good but you can find out more about it on the Influential Points website here: https://influentialpoints.com/Gallery/Tinocallis_takachihoensis_Japanese_elm_aphid.htm
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Mid-October 2022
A few interesting fungi around the city during October. At Earlham Cemetery I went and had a look at Hygrophoropsis rufa, which had been identified by Ian Senior. I've seen 'False Chanterelles' (Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca) in the same area in the past, so it seems likely that I'd probably seen H. rufa in the past but not realised it. There was a similar scenario at Sycamore Crescent Wood, where a large woody bracket fungus must have been present near the bridge to Sweetbriar Marshes for many years, but it was only identified this year when Jeremy Bartlett realised that it was Pereniporia fraxinea.
Two species found on my way into work were also new ones. I had seen pictures online of a rather nondescript white fungus called Mealy Domecap (Tricholomella constricta) found by Jeremy Bartlett growing along the edge of a street in the Golden Triangle. Apparently it favours areas 'enriched' by animal urine. As there are plenty of dog walkers nearby I checked a few grassy communal areas near our house and found it within a few minutes! On another morning it was raining so I was looking down, trying to avoid getting soaked, when I noticed several boletes growing on a verge under a Lime tree (Tilia sp). Taking one back and taking a section I realised that it was Boletus (=Xerocomellus) bubalinus, a species new to Norfolk where the cap turns pink with a blue line along the pore layer when cut. This was the first Norfolk record.
Finally I was told about some Aromatic Pinkgills (Entoloma pleopodium) growing in Earlham Cemetery. They had been cut down as part of the mowing regime almost as soon as they had been found, but fortunately Vanna noticed a few fresh ones a week later, so I went back and managed to see them.
Early October 2022
More interesting things seen on my daily commute, including two new aphids, Aphis oenotherae on Evening Primrose and Aphis solanella on Black Nightshade. At Sainsburys on Queens Road there were several moths around one of the security lights, unfortunately nothing new but Large Ranunculus is always nice to see. Walking down towards Lakenham Way I found a Nigma walckenaeri spider hiding under a silk tent. There were also some interesting plants at Wensum Park on a dried-out bit of what is usually a flooded inlet, notably Marsh Yellow-cress, Bullwort and Cockspur Grass.
