NORWICH: Mousehold - mainly looking at birch

28th May 2018

After dropping Cathy & Rose off in the city I decided to spend an hour or so up at Mousehold Heath. Checking the birches I began to see Parent Bugs, so named because they stand and guard their eggs. At least 12 of them were found in a small area, undoubtedly a small proportion of the true number.

Whilst looking at the birches I started to find leaf mines, including some made by moths, sawflies and a weevil. Of these Eriocrania salopiella was new to both me and the 10km square, and Stigmella lapponica was also a good find. The sawfly mines were caused by Fenusa pumila, whilst a mine ending in a neat cut out circle was caused by Orchestes rusci. Pictured here in the same order -

I had hoped to see some bees that Jeremy & Vanna had seen around the pond, but there didn't seem to be much flying around, however I did find a Panzer's Nomad Bee, Nomada panzeri, which completed the set of three similar species for me. Another Alabonia geoffrella moth, Broom Beetle and Green Tiger Beetle completed an interesting trip to the heath.

WHITLINGHAM: Jackdaw roost & leafmines

12th October 2017

In a few weeks time after work trips to Whitlingham will once again become impossible until the spring, so I made the most of the light and spent an hour looking and listening for migrants. The only birds of note were hundreds of Jackdaws going to roost in trees on the main island, and a flyover Grey Wagtail.

Of other stuff, I saw several Parent Bugs on the Alders, and also these leaf mines that have caused a bit of discussion online. Leafmine guru John Langmaid agreed with me that they were Phyllonorycter klemaniella, but the reddish triangle at the base of the midrib is a feature of the (usually longer) mines of Phyllonorycter froelichiella, so at some point I need to go back for another look.

As well as the Alders I also checked some Ash trees, hoping to find one of the Agromyzid Recording Scheme's target mines. I didn't, but did find a moth mine. It keyed out nicely online as Prays fraxinella, but when I went to submit it I found out that the species has been split and there is no information about the mines of the 'new' species Prays ruficeps, so it has to go down as either/or.