Hickling guided walk, 24 August 2023

A curiosity of today’s visit to NWT’s Hickling Broad and Marshes nature reserve was that two of the most interesting sightings were in the long grass in the open picnic area by the visitor centre. The first of these was the day-flying moth latticed heath. Rachel in the visitor centre checked it out and it’s not the first for the reserve, but far from an everyday species. (More information on Norfolk Moths.) For the second good find, scroll down to lunchtime!

Latticed heath moth.

On this warm and sunny day, dragonflies were out on good numbers, with common and ruddy darters particularly common and confiding. A black-tailed skimmer landed on pallets in the first field, and migrant hawkers were numerous. Later a female emperor dragonfly hunted around us, and we saw a couple of brown hawkers. Mosquitos were also numerous, as two of us in shorts found, especially between the visitor centre and the first hide, though Ann’s insect repellent helped. A brown shield bug on a bramble stem was a dock bug.

A chiffchaff called and briefly showed, and an early find was a green cigar gall. We get used to seeing these in winter once the reeds they are on have turned brown; perhaps it’s just a question of getting your eye in. There was a great white egret and a little egret from the first hide (Cadbury Hide), and a distant great spotted woodpecker high on a dead tree. Bramble leaves on this part of the reserve were noticeably affected by a rust fungus.

Cigar gall; abundant rust fungus on bramble.

On Hickling Broad there was a flock of coots, a few great crested grebes, mute swans, herons, distant gulls and a common tern. By where the boat tours leave, a common lizard soaked up some warmth on wooden fence plank.

The next stretch was under oaks, prompting a look for galls, now coming into their peak season. On the oaks were spangle galls, cherry galls and knopper galls on acorns or fallen on the ground, all three types of gall induced by gall wasps. Farther on we found thistle galls on creeping thistle, caused by a mite, and a robin’s pin cushion on a dog rose, caused by a gall wasp.

Oak galls collage. Left, knopper galls. Top right, spangle galls. Bottom right, cherry galls (the cherry colour comes later).

Also on one of these oaks was a footman moth. The ‘melon seed’ shape makes it dingy footman.

Dingy footman. Also the brown lumps above the moth are probably another oak gall, 'collared bud' galls  from yet another gall wasp, Andricus curvator.

The star birds of Hickling – like harriers, bitterns and cranes – were generally conspicuous by their absence from view, though we did hear bearded tits. At Bittern Hide, the best birds were inside: three swallows in a nest.

At Brendan’s Marsh a wader flew up the channel and landed by the flock of Canada geese: a common sandpiper. Then we saw a closer wader in a pool in the mare’s tail, this one a green sandpiper. There were great white and little egrets, though no sign of the spoonbills recently announced to have bred here. Much of the open ground was bright yellow, a covering of buttonweed or Cotula. It was lunchtime, so we took the woodland route back to the visitor centre, finding a willow emerald damselfly on route.

Time for picnic lunches. The waste bins were taped and labelled as out of use, the reason being a steady stream of hornets through a gap in the cupboard that houses the bins. (The nest was therefore out of sight, though here is photo of it on Mike Dawson’s Facebook.)

Wasp spider, a first for Hickling (Helen Crowder).

It was where we’d seen the latticed heath that Helen made the best discovery. Two weeks ago, at Thompson Common, it was Ann who’d found the wasp spider. Today it was Helen’s turn to discover one. The female wasp spider was in a typical position, in long grass likely to have plenty of cricket & grasshopper prey. They can be quite static, though this wasp spider’s web was incomplete, so she was often on the move, adding strands. Eventually Rachel was free from her meet-and-greet duties and came to enjoy the discovery. Later she advised that it was a first record for the reserve … and a good reason to keep the grass here uncut.

More spiders in the Hickling picnic area (Helen Crowder). Probable ID is candy-striped spider Enoplognatha ovata. 

Many of the group extended our stay into the afternoon, albeit dropping from seven to four as we walked past Brendan’s Marsh and onto Stubb Mill. Brendan’s Marsh had more wildfowl species than you might expect in high summer: mallards and gadwalls, of course, also teals, shovelers and two wigeons. A little ringed plover flew in to land near another green sandpiper and there was a large flock of lapwings. We remarked on how great white egrets are impressive when they fly: three here this afternoon, plus little egrets, both now routine sightings at Hickling.

By the path, two blue-tailed damselflies floated around, and one settled for long enough to allow photos. A reed warbler sang briefly – more of sub-song, really. At the far end of Brendan’s Marsh we scanned an open area and found a Chinese water deer looking at us.

Blue-tailed damselfly (Helen Crowder).

No surprise that on a warm summer’s day there were plenty of butterflies around. Red admirals were in good numbers: these included six on a patch of hemp agrimony during the morning. Other included speckled woods, gatekeepers, green-veined and small whites, and a peacock soaking up warmth in a hollow in a broken tree trunk.

Peacock butterfly.

Stubb Mill was the walk’s farthest point, somewhere to enjoy the benches and the view. We returned along the route we’d come, with a welcome breeze now, adding a fine view of a female sparrowhawk, marsh harrier, a single bar-tailed godwit in flight and a flock of ten calling curlews.

Mating small whites at the Stubb Mill viewpoint, with Heigham Holmes in the background.

A lovely plant of chicory outside NWT Hickling's visitor centre.

Back at the visitor centre, Rachel was still showing the wasp spider to visitors.

Chris Durdin

Thompson Common 10 August 2023

The fine, hot weather was true to the forecast – about time after a mixed few weeks – as eight of us gathered to visit NWT’s Thompson Common nature reserve centre, ready for our 10 o’clock start. Though some distance from water, our first dragonflies were in the car park: a flying emperor, a ‘hanging’ female migrant hawker and a pair of common darters in tandem.

Common darters 'in tandem' (digiscoped).

We took the winding path through open woodland, where a speckled wood was flying around, and were soon where the common is a mix of long grass and wild flowers, along with accessible pingos. On the first of these was a common emerald damselfly, with lots of powder-blue pruinescence. Ruddy darters were everywhere: not only were several pairs flying in tandem, we could also see the female flicking her tail end, shooting eggs into the grass around the wetland edge. At one point, Ann’s arm was in the way of this process and two eggs stuck to her wrist. Notable flowers in the water included lesser spearwort and hemlock water dropwort.

Two of the many ruddy darters today (Helen Crowder).

Spotted flycatchers, probably the best of today’s birds, moved around the edge of the willow scrub and hawthorn hedge on the other side of the pond. Through the telescope it was evident that there were young birds here, pale and distinctly spotty. A little later we found what seemed to be second family party of spotted flycatchers, at least four of them, a treat for what is now such a scarce bird in much of the UK. We heard Cetti’s warbler and found a great spotted woodpecker in one of the dead ashes. Other birds today included calling water rail, marsh tit, coal tit and bullfinches, though none of these showed well. Happily, as well as hearing the strident whistles of nuthatches, we also saw them.

Gall on creeping thistle, caused by thistle gall fly Urophora cardui.

We moved to the pingo on the other side of the main path, and here we found scarce emerald damselflies (robust spreadwings). A brown hawker was flying around. We talked about the gipsywort growing in a tussock sedge. 

Scarce emerald aka robust spreadwing (Helen Crowder).

Then a cry from Ann alerted us to a great find: a female wasp spider. These are spreading into Norfolk, though are still scarce: but this wasn’t a first for Thompson Common as this blog by Barry Madden from 2020 shows.

Wasp spider collage. The upper side, left is more distinctive. On the photo of the under side, right, you can also see the distinctive zigzag 'stabilimentum' in the web. The purpose of this visible web decoration is unknown. 

Naturally the sunshine brought out butterflies, including peacocks on hemp agrimony, gatekeepers, green-veined white, holly blues and a probable brown argus. Brimstones, which at first were flying around, then settled on fleabane flowers, four or five in one area.

Gatekeeper.

Spot the brimstone among the common fleabane.

On the furthest area we reached, we paused by patches of red bartsia growing by the path’s edge. The search was on for red bartsia bee, a very scarce - or perhaps overlooked – species that seems to be moving north. It didn’t take long and there were at least two of these grey-backed, three-striped bees. As is characteristic, they proved very difficult to photograph.

It was time to re-trace steps to the car park to eat picnics. Helen noticed a willow emerald damselfly flying into a perched position, where it stayed for us to see. Just before we were leaving, a male banded demoiselle landed near Tricia’s car.

Chris Durdin

Wildflowers and Meadows in Eaton Park, Norwich, 13 July 2023

 

Guest blog by Sarah Scott, Friends of Eaton Park

Walk arranged by Friends of Eaton Park, with Chris Durdin, Thursday 13 July 2023 6pm.

We were lucky again with the weather: a few spits and spots of rain at the start, but clear and dry for the rest of the walk.  Twelve of us set off from the Rotunda and first stop was the wildflower area between the two model railway enclosures.  This area was originally planted with heathers, but they deteriorated some years ago and the Friends of Eaton Park - in collaboration with the City Council - replaced them with an area of seeded wildflowers.  The beds were a riot of colour for our visit, and we identified: Musk Mallow, Betony, Clary, Greater Knapweed, Ladies Bedstraw (an exceptionally tall version), Wild Carrot and Restharrow.  There was also some bright pink Broad-leaved Everlasting Pea, and Chris used one of the flowers to show us the characteristic structure of pea flowers – the upper petal (the standard), two side petals (wings) and two lower petals, fused together (the keel).

Betony was in both its usual reddish-purple colour and several in this white form.

Broad-leaved everlasting pea.

Restharrow: like several of the flowers in the first area, unusually tall.

Our next stop was inside the large enclosure of the model railway. Before the railway extended into this area of the park, it was the site of a row of clay tennis courts.  In order to lay the railway lines, the courts were broken up and the debris was piled up in mounds. No other preparation, or seed sowing took place, so the meadow growth in this area is entirely natural and utterly different from the previous stop.  We spotted Haresfoot Clover, two kinds of Trefoil (Birdsfoot and Hop), Cranesbills (Dovesfoot) and Yarrow. Bee Orchids are thriving in this part of the park but they are best seen earlier in the year (first weeks of June).

Time was running out at this stage, so we headed straight to the main meadow (on the North Park Avenue side of the park) pausing enroute to look at: Ivy-leaved Toadflax, Procumbent Pearlwort, Knotgrass, Pineapple Mayweed, Plantains (Buckshorn and Ribwort) and Burdock. Most of these were growing out of cracks in the concrete next to the boating lake.  We also spotted a fern (Polypody) growing in the gutter of the old putting green hut!

Common polypody, in the gutter of the old putting green hut.

The North Park meadow is now well established and there was lots to see there: Lesser Knapweed, Yellow Rattle (largely gone to seed with visible – rattly - seed heads), Ladies Bedstraw (the usual, shorter version), Common Ragwort (complete with Red Soldier Beetles, aka Hogweed Bonking Beetle!), Hedge Mustard and grasses (Cocksfoot, Timothy, Yorkshire Fog), White Campion and Catsear.

We discussed the maintenance of the meadow, which is cut just once a year and has clear paths for public access. This year, in September, it will be cut by a party of scythers (in conjunction with Norfolk Wildlife Trust) and – as in previous years – an area will be left overwinter as a ‘refuge’ for insects.

The grasshoppers were very active during our visit but, sadly, we didn’t spot any wasp spiders on this occasion – maybe later in the summer. Despite not finding the spiders we finished up with a fascinating discussion about the ‘stabilimentum’ which is a wide, white, zig-zag strip running down the centre of the web. There are various suggestions as to its purpose – attracting a mate? Attracting prey? Visible at night? But the jury is still out on this one.  The wonders of nature!

Thank you, Chris, for another entertaining and informative ramble.

Sarah Scott

Group members around an area sown with wild flowers.

 

Cley Marshes, 7 July 2023

It was a glorious day – as the forecast had said – as eight of us gathered in the car park of NWT’s nature reserve centre at Cley a little before 10 o’clock, where a whitethroat was singing. We learnt that opening time is exactly 10 am, so it was a very short wait to get our members’ stickers and to use the loos.

Spoonbill

As we headed into the marshes, a Mediterranean gull flew over, and soon after about three were on view on the scrape viewed from the first hide. We paused to look at blue-tailed damselflies in ditches, a reed bunting, a common darter dragonfly and various insects on hogweed, especially a tiger cranefly. Flowers studied included perennial sowthistle with its yellow globular hairs, then hairy buttercup Ranunculus sardous. The latter is similar to bulbous buttercup, including reflexed sepals, but its distribution is strongly linked to coastal grazing marshes.

Tiger cranefly.

The many gulls in front of the hide included some Mediterranean gulls and a single immature little gull, alongside more familiar species and some Sandwich terns. There were lots of black-tailed godwits, some russet-coloured, many avocets and lapwings, plus ruffs, greenshank, redshank and little ringed plovers. The waders all took to the air for a moment when a hobby came through. Many of the shelducks on view were this year’s birds – well-grown shelducklings, if that’s a word. Sand martins were feeding over the water, then scores perched on reeds on the skyline.

Black-tailed godwits, Mediterranean gull (centre), lapwing, black-headed and herring gulls.

Birdwatching this morning wasn’t just a question of looking out of the viewing slots as adult swallows were constantly coming into the hide to their nest. There were three well-grown chicks in the nest.

Swallow and nest in the hide at NWT Cley Marshes.

Moving to the next hide, at first sight there seemed to be about 25 little egrets on the far side of the lagoon. Then the penny dropped that several of the white birds were spoonbills, in addition to three more obvious spoonbills to their right.

Walking on, we passed a hunting marsh harrier then a Norfolk hawker perching on a reed in a ditch, with not a single water soldier (as you’d expect in the Broads with this species of dragonfly) to be seen. The Norfolk hawker left its perch to mob a much bigger emperor dragonfly that was passing.

Our next viewing stop was Bishop’s Hide, in front of the island where the spoonbills had gathered: 14 in total, plus around 20 little egrets. A green sandpiper fed on the far side of the lagoon, and very close to us was a pair of eclipse plumage shovelers, their beaks obvious even though they’d lost their distinctive plumage.

There’d been a scattering of butterflies all morning – such as ringlets, gatekeepers and commas – and as we walked back towards the visitor centre, a red admiral landed on Ann’s binoculars. We had our picnic lunches overlooking the reserve.

Gatekeeper

There was a ‘bonus’ afternoon stop at Stonepit Heath, Kelling. This was mostly to see silver-washed fritillaries, and there were several of these fast-flying butterflies around a big buddleia and patches of bramble. Other butterflies were common species: perhaps we were a tad early for white admirals. 

Silver-washed fritillary.

Denise pointed out a hoof fungus on a birch, and that led us to another tree where there were several more, in various sizes. Under two of these we could make out the larval cases of hoof fungus gnats (the link is to a previous blog about these from March 2022), and this may well be another new site for this little-recorded invertebrate.

Hoof fungi, with cocoons from hoof fungus gnats under the lower fungus.

On another fungal note, Rob pointed out a piece of wood stained blue-green. The jade coloration is the mycelium of the green elfcup fungus, once used in the manufacture of Tunbridge ware, a form of decoratively inlaid woodwork.

Staining caused by green elf cup fungus.

Chris Durdin

Eaton Park, Norwich, 11 May 2023

Guest blog by Helen Mitchell, Friends of Eaton Park

This May’s bird walk with Chris Durdin was at the end of a long grey day of intermittent, heavy showers. Happily these had passed by the time we met in the rose garden and our early evening walk was bathed in golden early evening sun light.

Eighteen of us enjoyed a walk around Eaton Park, starting in the rose garden with distant blackbird song, setting off down the tree-lined avenue to North Park Meadow before skirting the pitch and putt to dive into Bluebell Wood, and ending looking across to adjacent council houses to watch the lively house sparrows nesting under the roof tiles and rocketing across to the thick park hedge for food or shelter.

It’s a time of year when migrants have returned, and we heard a chiffchaff across the pitch and putt and three blackcaps. In the sky above three early swifts flew over us to everyone’s excitement.

Group members in Bluebell Wood.

Most birds have already found their mates. We spotted a woodpigeon perched quietly on a precarious nest high in one of the avenue trees, and a blue tit flying in and out of a bird box that had been placed by Friends of Eaton Park on one of the redwood trees.

Chris explained that this time of year it’s mostly about the territory and blackbirds, robins, wrens, dunnocks and woodpigeons were all singing to claim theirs. Elsewhere starlings, crows, goldfinches and blue tits were busy foraging in the hedges, grass and trees. Jackdaws were about too – good numbers of them roost in the park.

Pignut and bluebells.

Along the way we also took in wildflowers. North Park Meadow highlights were the delicate white islands of meadow saxifrage and the pink and pale blue carpets of dovesfoot cranesbill. In Bluebell Wood we admired the true English bluebells, red campion and delicate white flowers of greater stitchwort beside them.

Greater stitchwort.

Two orange tip butterflies jinked past us along the way and right at the end we found a single egg from one of them, orange like the wing tips themselves, on the garlic mustard or jack-by-the-hedge that skirts the hedges of the park. 

Upton Marshes, 7 April 2023

A perfect early spring morning had turned to a cloudy but dry day as eight of us assembled this Good Friday morning. Would we find some signs of spring? The answer was yes, starting with a little egret with fine breeding season plumes. We were keeping an ear out for warblers, starting with a Cetti’s, then there was the distinctive song of the first sedge warbler of the year for all of us. That said, the weather was windy and the warbler was keeping its head down, and we didn’t see this bird or another that we heard farther along.

Scanning far across the marshes, I picked up another first for the year: a swallow, albeit distant. Gadwalls were flying around, shelduck too, plus the inevitable greylag geese and three species of gulls: black-headed, lesser black-back and herring.

By the River Bure we heard the ‘ping’ of a bearded tit, like the sedge warbler keeping out of sight. Scanning across the river to Oby Marshes there were distant marsh harriers, and later there were more harriers towards Upton Fen. A redshank called: we found it as it walked past a teal and along the edge of one of the scrapes.

We were intrigued by the amount of bird droppings on the side of Tall Mill and investigated by asking the people there. They’d found pellets and concluded both were on account of a barn owl. This brought us to the path that runs between tall hedges. Here we took time to watch six fieldfares: it was one of those rare days when both summer and winter visitors were around. Through a gap in the hedge, we could see an oystercatcher, Egyptian geese and a grey heron. Our third grazing marsh wader species was lapwing, in the distance over the marshes next to the fen. We’d heard skylark and here there was a meadow pipit that seemed to start a display flight then call it off.

Tuberous comfrey (and a lesser celandine).

Jelly ear fungi.

So far it was a day with a distinct lack of spring flowers, though that changed as we left the marshes, starting with lesser celandines in a ditch. Tuberous comfrey attracted some interest from group members and there was a mass of jelly ear fungus on some felled wood, probably elder. Bees were out, too: we saw buff-tailed and common carder and Ann found a hairy-footed flower bee. Hedge banks were scoured, and we found many nursery web spiders and seven-spot ladybirds.

Nursery web spider on white dead-nettle.

We moved into the village, where there were more spring flowers: we may have persuaded a gardener that his vegetated bank with a mix of red dead-nettle and common field speedwell is something to be enjoyed. At this point a swallow came over – a good spring sighting and an upgrade on the previous distant view. And there were more birds, including house sparrows, starlings, a pied wagtail on a wire and goldfinches.

Red dead-nettle, common field speedwell and seven-spot ladybirds.

In Upton Village we stopped for a coffee or drink at the community-run White Horse pub. Walking back to the car park, there were more wild flowers, including cow parsley and more alexanders. The pick of the flowers was probably hedgerow (=Pyrenean) cranesbills. Four of us ate picnics on the benches near the car park, accompanied by a singing chiffchaff.

Hedgerow or Pyrenean cranesbill.

Chris Durdin

Brecks guided walk, 16 February 2023

Talk as we travelled was about the weather, but happily the drizzle petered out and wasn’t a nuisance, though it remained grey all day. 

There was lots of bird song at the Forestry Commission’s car park at Santon Downham – we heard song thrushes and robins for much of the day, plus coal tit here. We crossed the bridge over the river Little Ouse, returning to Norfolk by doing so; nearby there was a nuthatch on a tree top. On the river were mute swans, mallards and moorhen, and two little grebes became three, then four.

Little Ouse. We liked the sculpture-like upturned branches in the river.

An old tree stump had many large plates of southern bracket. Other fungi today included turkeytail, an old oyster fungus of some type and three hoof fungi on a tall birch stump.

Southern bracket and digiscoped hoof fungus.

Everywhere there was dead wood: stumps, fallen trees – including some in or over the river – and a lot of standing dead wood. Cheryl found a treecreeper, though it was no surprise that we didn’t see or hear the lesser spotted woodpeckers known from here: typically they show on a bright late winter’s day. The only woodpecker was a distant drumming, out of sight, which was probably a great spotted woodpecker. We found some tree top siskins, one twisting its tail making it seem like a bigger bird then we’d expect.

Ann has trained us well, and many of us found cigar galls on reeds.

Parsley piert.

We took a return route along the edge of a reedbed, under the railway and onto the heath. A sandy, disturbed patch here had emerging leaves of parsley piert, easy to overlook even when in flower, which this wasn’t. We then overlooked the heath on the other side of road where a mistle thrush on the ground flew to a bare tree and soon there were four, with some jostling going on within the mistle thrush hierarchy. Our first buzzard of the day appeared. Ann and went to look at a stump that was covered with fungi. From the top they looked like turkeytail but the gills on the underside meant a rethink: oak mazegill.

Oak mazegill.

We enjoyed the sight of highland cattle and, in a rushy field, a pair of stonechats.

Stonechat, male, digiscoped.

We had our picnics in the car park and it was dry enough for four of us to share a bench. From here there were glimpses of stock dove and woodpigeon display flights, plus collared doves.

We drove to Lynford Arboretum for the rest of the afternoon. We paused where the Forestry Commission puts out food. For moment it seemed like it was mostly blue and great tits feeding, though soon yellowhammers appeared.

Yellowhammer, digiscoped in the gloom. Still, you can see what it is.

Farther on, over the river, we scanned the row of trees known to attract hawfinches. Instead, the main attraction here was redwings, perching mostly high in the trees. A great spotted woodpecker joined them.

Joining other birdwatchers a little farther along, one of them was alert to small birds arriving to perch high on distant conifers: hawfinches. There were four – two and two – that stayed for a good while. They were distant, though their distinctive profile was clear through telescopes.

Possibly the worst photo ever included in a blog: very distant, digiscoped hawfinches on a gloomy day.

Retuning towards the bridge, several small birds were moving around the empty bird feeders here, including a marsh tit that landed on one of the low pillars on the bridge. At the feeders the yellowhammers were there again, and a siskin came to drink.

Through this guided walk, and the previous week's walk at Hickling, Honeyguide donated £175 to Norfolk Wildlife Trust.

Chris Durdin