While working on a house in the middle of Pulham St Mary a small green spider on a door frame caught my attention. Closer inspection confirmed what I thought - it was Nigma walckenaeri, Green Meshweb Spider. I have seen this rare species once before, in Earlham Cemetery but this record is from a new location and is further evidence that the species is expanding it's range. Usually they are on leaves under their web but to get one in full view was worth going back home for my camera!
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
With the bank holiday weekend to myself I had planned a day out in north Essex visiting Coggleshall and a couple of National Trust properties there. Needless to say there was another part to the plan - a small drive across from there to see the 1st summer drake Canvasback at Abberton!
I arrived at the Layer Breton Causeway and very conveniently the bird was asleep on the causeway itself with loads of Pochard and close enough not to even need my scope. It did wake up a few times for a preen and a shuffle allowing me to get a few shots. Scanning about I also counted 14 Great White Egrets, c60 Little Egrets, 4 Cattle Egrets and a single Common Sandpiper.
Possibly the easiest twitch ever!
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
Our local grapevine worked nicely late yesterday afternoon when Roger Walsh reported a probable Temminck's Stint down on the moor.
I dashed straight down to find the bird in full view and showing very nicely. It took a few minutes for us to clinch the leg colour as the bird was feeding in mud but we soon managed to confirm the id. A great local patch tick for me.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
We've always been fond of Shingle Street due to it's isolated position at the end of a dead end road and lack of visitors. Saturday however saw more people there than we've ever seen before. Being an extensive area people are quickly 'lost' so we spent a very pleasant afternoon and evening.
While lolling about on the beach inspecting rafts of gulls loafing offshore a Peregrine flew strongly south and a single Sandwich Tern joined the gulls. c80 Linnets were also about - feeding on Annual Sea-blite. A couple of walks in both directions revealed Grayling, Small Heath, Meadow Brown and Small White with a nice find of 2 Gorse Shieldbugs on Spanish Broom. Other good plants included Hungarian Mullein, Hoary Mullein, Soapwort (of the double-flowered form know as Bouncing Bet), Sea Pea, Sea Kale and Musk Thistle. The midge gall Trioza centramthi was also spotted on Red Valerian leaves.
Despite rapidly drying conditions there is still a nice patch of water and mud in the middle of Dickleburgh Moor at present. Yesterday it finally attracted some nice passage waders and with the light being good it made for some good viewing from the central path. 5 Wood Sandpipers was a site maximum for me and along with them were 3 Green Sandpipers, 2 Common Sandpipers, 6 Ruff and the usual handful of Lapwings. A couple of Yellow Wagtails, 2 Stock Doves, c25 Little Egrets and a Reed Warbler were the best of the rest.
On the slow mooch back to the car I found the midge gall Wachtliella persicariae on Amphibious Bistort, Red Goosefoot and False Fox Sedge.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
The Norfolk Flora Group are a collection of enthusiastic volunteer botanists keen to map and survey the wild plants of the county. They meet very regularly to conduct field surveys but despite knowing a few of them (mostly through social media!) I had yet to meet up with them. That changed yesterday with a trip to the Earsham estate.
A working quarry was the unlikely meeting point but with very good reason. Parking up it was immediately obvious that vast areas of the site were a sea of the rare Pennyroyal! After everyone had arrived we were taken a few hundred yards further into the quarry for rarity number two - the impossibly rare Grass-poly which Meg has been surveying and found c200 plants! Also nearby of interest were loads of Panicled Willowherb, Marsh Yellow-cress, some probable Cornfield Knotgrass and rather less welcome New Zealand Pigmyweed which is being eradicated.
After that excitement it was off in small groups to survey a number of arable field margins. My time was fairly limited due to other commitments in the afternoon so I had to sneak off after an hour or so. It was great to finally meet up with the group however and put some faces to names.
A lift out into Cambs with Ben Potterton for a quick visit to the access-restricted Chippenham Fen NNR looked after by Natural England.
Ben has an appointment to collect some seed of one of the rarest plants in the UK, Cambridge Milk-parsley that the warden at Chippenham had collected. So I joined Ben, Meg and Ben's colleague Aiden on the jolly.
It proved to be a very enjoyable visit with Chris the warden being very welcoming as he took a couple of hours out to show us around some parts of the reserve. Cambridge Milk-parsley was obviously our main target and I was amazed that there are thousands of plants there with loads in full flower. Interestingly they favour drier areas where I was expecting to be looking at them with wet feet! This rare plants now grows in just 2 places with this one being the largest population by a huge margin. We saw a few other good plants too with the attractive Saw-wort being a particular highlight for me as this is the closest they occur to home. Long-stalked Yellow Sedge and Canadian Waterweed were also both new to me added to which we also saw Marsh Fragrant Orchid, Fen Bedstraw, Yellow Wort, Heath Milkwort and the Eyebright, Euphrasia confusa.
I didn't spend a huge amount of time looking at insects but did find Ectemnius lapidarius, Wasp Spider, Large-headed Resin Bee, Ruddy Darter, Southern Hawker and the hoverfly Cheilosia impressa. Back at Meg's a Turnip Sawfly posed on Ben's car too.
