NORWICH: January 2024 roundup

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.

NORWICH: Fern rusts, aphids and other interesting things

Late February 2022

Having read an article about a genus of white rust fungi on ferns, I started checking various fern species as I walked around the city. I had no luck on the small amounts of Black Spleenwort and Wall Rue that I came across, and also drew a blank on Polypody. I did however manage to find Milesina scolopendrii on Hartstongue Fern and a few days later Milesina kriegeriana on Male Fern.

Whilst checking ferns and other plants growing on walls I also found various other things of interest. The scarcest find was Black Fern Aphid, Idiopterus nephrelepidis, which was first found in Norfolk a few years ago by Dave Appleton, and at the time was believed to be the first time it had been foud outside in the UK (Dave tells me there is possibly one earlier record that has come to light since, but otherwise it remains restricted to North Elmham). The nymphs that I found were on Polypody in a church doorway.

On the same fern community as the aphids mentioned above I also found lavae of the Fern Smut moth and some Soft Brown Scale Insects, Coccus herperidium. Another interesting aphid, also found previously by Dave Appleton, was Dysaphis gallica on Ivy-leaves Toadflax.

Elsewhere in the same week around the city I found the fungus Septoria chelidonii on Greater Celandine and the liverwort Fullania dilatata.

WHITLINGHAM: A couple of visits to Trowse

September 2021

A couple of brief visits to Trowse Meadow and the burial ground, a rather negelected bit of my patch of late, turned up a few interesting things. On my first visit I noticed a new patch plant, Balm, whilst some fibrecaps were probably (but not confirmed as) Deadly Fibrecap (Inocybe erubescens). There were a couple of nice galls on some roses too.

On the next visit I looked for and found a couple of species I'd seen elsewhere recently, Dogwood aphid and Spindle scale insect, and photographed some pondskaters that I have frustratingly failed to identify.

NORWICH: A selection of garden insects

7th & 8th May 2017

You don't have to go very far to see some interesting insects, particularly in sunny weather. On Sunday I was making a cup of tea when I noticed a hoverfly outside, and nipping out for a better look I saw that it was Epistrophe eligans, a common species but one I've only seen once before. Whilst outside I also saw Platycheirus albimanus, which Cathy had seen previously here but was the fourth hoverfly onto the garden list.

On Monday evening I took advantage of a brief sunny spell to have a walk around the garden. Three things were of particular interest, a tiny Speckled Bush-cricket on a dandelion flower, a scale insect sp on a Field Maple sapling and three Polydrusus formosus weevils on the same tree. Not bad for a quick garden wander!