Chris Lansdell's Birding & Nature Diary: March 2025

Fungal Double and a first for the UK, 12 March 2025

A trip into the fine city (Norwich) to twitch two fungi my friend Jeremy had told me about.

The first one was at the UEA and with parking there during the day being a complete nightmare I left the house early. Pulling in near the Sainsbury Centre I found plentiful parking - and my target under a tree just 5 yards from the car! It was the scarce Cedar Cup that bursts from the bare earth under cedar trees. I found 6 specimens in various stages of emergence and set about photographing them.

Second stop was at Sweetbriar Marshes. Here again Jeremy’s directions were spot on with me walking down through Sycamore Wood, over the river footbridge and straight onto the Steccherinum oreophilum growing all over the cut end of a stump by the path. The id has been confirmed with microscopy and it is believed to be the first record for the UK. It’s also rather a cracker of a small toothed bracket fungus.

A Woodcock flushed there was an additional bonus as were numerous Scarlet Elf Cups and Netted Crust.

Cedar Cups

Steccherinum oreophilum

Scarlet Elf Cups

Netted Crust

Dunwich Forest and Westwood Marshes, 9 March 2025

A day out doing a long circular walk on the Suffolk coast.

Belinda wanted to see the fantastic display of Wild Daffodils at Dingle House and I was more than happy to find a new hoverfly for me nectaring on one of them. It was Yellow-bowed Smoothwing, Scaeva selenitica, a scarce species of pine forests and heaths.

Out on Westwood Marshes I found a Great White Egret and counted no less than 4 Water Rails squealing and 3 Cetti’s Warblers singing. A group of c12 Reed Buntings (all males!) was rather unusual. A colourful large Common Frog was on the path there too - and lucky not to be trodden on!

Back in the woods I quickly found a Firecrest for my yearlist in my usual spot.

Yellow-bowed Smoothwing

Wild Daffodil

Common Frog

A fantastic day birding in North Norfolk, 8 March 2025

It’s been a while since I spent a whole day dedicated to birding - and even longer since I did that in my former haunt of North Norfolk. But with a couple of species I wanted to catch up with and exclusive use of the car Saturday was the day.

First port of call were the roadside floods east of Stiffkey where I drew a frustrating blank apart from flushing a Kingfisher from the Stiffkey River. So it was a quick detour to the floods to the west of the village for a Glossy Ibis which I luckily found nice and easily. It then emerged that my quarry from earlier, the 7 Lesser White-fronted Geese from the Swedish re-introduction scheme were still present but on a hitherto unknown flood around the back of the hill by the coast road! Hot-footing it back there I found the spot just in time for them to wander into view from behind some reeds. A Cattle Egret in the same spot was an added bonus while 5 Red Kites circled about.

With my mission at Stiffkey complete I headed for Walsey Hills at Cley to look for the wintering Siberian Chiffchaff in the spruces on the top of the hill. Sadly, despite a hour and a half searching I drew a blank with just a single Chiffchaff and my first Red Admiral and Comma of the year to show for my efforts. 24 Curlew were by the East Bank viewed from my lofty position.

After lunch I decided I had time to visit Natural Surroundings at Glandford as Jeremy had given me details of a rare fungi there quite a while ago. Being a bracket fungus I was pretty sure it would still be there even if it was past its best. And so it proved as I found the Benzoin Bracket quite quickly. It being on the biggest fallen pine there helped in locating it! Comma and my first Marmalade Hoverfly of the year were around a patch of comfrey there. A quick Look along the riverside path revealed several patches of Moschatel but no flowers yet. Over the other side of the entrance track I scorched (trespassed!) onto the Bayfield Estate to get some close views and photographs of the female Goosander on the lake there.

After that I had just one more place I wanted to visit - Warham Greens for the raptor roost. Parking up on the concrete pad on Garden Drove I looked west and immediately saw the adult female Pallid Harrier hunting along a distant hedgerow - and I mean immediately! A ringtail Hen Harrier was there too and that promptly flew out to the saltmarsh and east right past the end of the drove. I made my way down the track to the edge of the saltings and began my vigil. The Pallid Harrier came into roost at 17.46 as the light was fading but before then I was entertained with 3 Hen Harriers, 5 Marsh Harriers, 2 Merlin, 1 Red Kite, 1 Peregrine and even a Spoonbill that flew east.

All in all a marvellous and highly productive day!

Lesser White-fronted Geese

Benzoin Bracket

Comma

Marmalade Hoverfly

Moschatel

Goosander

Hen Harrier

A bench full of lichens, 28 February 2025

We took a drive down to Wetherden in darkest Suffolk on Friday. Belinda’s Mum and Dad are buried in the churchyard there and she wanted to tidy the grave up a bit.

While she was doing that I wandered around the churchyard to see what I could find. Snowdrops are now out in full force everywhere but my first Lesser Celandines of the year together with Honey Bees and a huge queen Buff-tailed Bumblebee were the most obvious things. I scrutinised the church walls finding the attractive moss Grey-cushioned Grimmia and Powdery Twig Lichen together with the common but lovely yellow lichen Variospora aurantia.

I then turned my attention to a gnarly old wooden bench close to where Belinda was and was delighted to find it covered in a variety of lichens including 2 that were new to me - Sordiate Greenshield Lichen, Flavoparmelia soredans and Abraded Camouflage Lichen, Melanelixia subaurifera as well as Net-marked Parmelia.

Earlier, as we left the house my first hoverfly of the year - Spotted Thintail, Meliscaeva auricollis was on a shrub in the front garden.