Chris Lansdell's Birding & Nature Diary: July 2024

Central Bury St Edmunds, 27 July 2024

I spent a few hours in Bury St Edmunds on Saturday, mainly concentrating on photographing some lovely townscapes.

Settling down for my lunch in the garden of the Quaker Meeting House in St Johns Street I made a surprise find of the impressive Golden-tabbed Robberfly clutching it's hapless prey. This is a Brecks speciality of sandy heaths so I was in the right sort of area but curiously in the very centre of town! Nearby, growing as a pavement weed was a single plant of South American Tobacco to continue the unexpected theme!

Golden-tabbed Robberfly

South American Tobacco

Garden goodies, part 2, 26 July 2024

The garden comes up trumps again! I do a circuit of the garden most days when the weather looks good and Friday produced some more lovely insects.

White-zoned Furrow Bee was the number one highlight, attracted to our Catsear in the lawn as is very typical of the species. Other sightings were Least Carpet, Straw Grass-veneer, Red-sided Eriothrix, Thick-legged Hoverfly, Field Grasshopper and the very attractive small Yellow Swarming Fly.

There are 2 prominent trees in our back garden - a huge Horse Chestnut and a Cherry. It was not a huge surprise to find Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner Moth and Cherry Fruit Moth, both tiny but good looking micro moths.

Yellow Swarming Fly

Least Carpet

Red-sided Eriothrix

Straw Grass-veneer

White-zoned Furrow Bee

Cherry Fruit Moth

Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner Moth

Garden goodies, 21 July 2024

A quick whizz around the garden on Sunday to see what I could find. Pleasingly the garden invert list continues to grow with 3 new species found. Along our hawthorn hedge - the micro moth Common Marble and the grey and black fly Voria ruralis. Close examination of our flowering Holyhocks also revealed a few weevils Ceratopion onopordi.

Plantwise our Stone Parsley is having an exceptional year with it having spread to several new areas and incuding some plants 7 feet tall!

Ceratopion onopordi

Voria ruralis

Common Marble

Wheatfen and a listing milestone, 20 July 2024

My 2nd recent visit to Wheatfen, this time in very hot conditions so I didn't walk far or stay too long!

I concentrated on the '11 Bridges Walk' looking mainly for insects. Highlights were a literally Beautiful China Mark alongside Small China Mark, Yellow Loosestrife Bee, Wall Mason Wasp, the wetland inhabiting fly Terellia tussilaginis and Physocephala rufipes (aka Waisted Beegrabber) which was a fitting species to become my 6000th pan species tick. Southern Hawkers, Brown Hawkers and Ruddy Darters plus a single Silver-washed Fritillary were on the wing with Orange Balsam and Monkeyflower being the best botanical finds.

On the way back one of the reserve volunteers was opening a moth trap so I had a quick gawp at Buff-tip, Drinker and Nut-tree Tussock.

Orange Balsam

Terrelia tussilaganis

Waisted Beegrabber

Yellow Loosestrife Bee

Beautiful China Mark

Small China Mark

Nut-tree Tussock

Botanising down Yarmo! 18 July 2024

Acting on a tip-off I made my way to Yarmouth on a sultry Thursday evening for some botanical twitching!

The plant in question was the rare Ray's Knotgrass which I duly found growing in the sand in the surreal surroundings of Mr Wobbles playpark just south of Britannia Pier! Another, much larger clump was in a fenced area just north of the pier and has been submitted on iRecord. Sea Rocket and Sea Holly were also in the area as I headed north along the seafront to have a look on North Denes. Just 50 yards from where I parked I was surprised and delighted to find a large bush of the even rarer Shrubby Hare's-ear by the seawall. An exploration of the same rough area also revealed a 2 curious mulleins - which I strongly suspect to be Orange Mullein and White Mullein together with loads of Sheeps-bit, Sand Sedge, Haresfoot Clover, White Stonecrop, Spiny Restharrow and more Sea Holly.

On the way out of town I stopped on Asda carpark for a look on Breydon. Here on The Lumps were 20 Spoonbills, a Glossy Ibis and loads of Mediterranean Gulls. With only bins on me there could well have been more Spoonbills but it was a lovely way to end the evening.

Ray's Knotgrass

Habitat!

Shrubby Hare's-ear

Orange Mullein

White Mullein

Sea Holly

Spiny Restharrow

Sand Sedge

White Stonecrop

A Tale of Two Fens, 13 & 14 July 2024

I've got a little behind with posts recently but last weekend I visited 2 rather different fens both of which provided plenty of interest.

On Saturday I suggested we have a long walk around the great reserve at Wheatfen. I wanted to try and find the rare beetle Galleruca laticollis at it's only UK site but think I may have been a little early for that. Nevertheless I couldn't complain with new insects for me including Black Snipefly, the attractive fly Tetanocera ferruginea and 2 new beetles in the form of Lagria hirta and Plateumaris bracata. Golden-bloomed Grey Longhorn Beetle and Four-banded Longhorn Beetle are always nice to see as were the day-flying moths Brown China Mark and Small China Mark. Norfolk Hawkers were whizzing about and my first Gatekeeper of the year sat nicely for a photo. Plants too were very good with Monkeyflower, Green Figwort, Small Balsam, Marsh Pea and Greater Burnet Saxifrage the highlights.

Tetanocera ferruginea

Black Snipefly

Small China Mark

Four-banded Longhorn Beetle

Plateumaris bracata

Gatekeeper

Lagria hirta

Green Figwort

Small Balsam

Monkeyflower

Fast forward to Sunday and a trip out in the opposite direction - to Redgrave and Lopham Fen. The Fen Raft Spiders here have been on my to do list for some while having only looked half-heartedly a couple of timesin the past. This time I was delighted to find half a dozen and get some photos too. It was fairly quiet otherwise (apart from a cow trying to eat Belinda's top!) but a trio of hoverflies in the form of Furry Dronefly, Tiger Hoverfly and Ferdinandea cuprea were around oaks and brambles. The latter being a new one for me.