Saturday 30 September 2017

Sep 30th Roydon Common and Dersingham Bog


Searching for Black Darters
Today, I went out with my friend David to Roydon Common to try one last time to search for black darter dragonflies. At Strumpshaw on Wednesday, I was tipped off to where to see them and how to get there. There was a particular spot that was just beyond the fence at the other end of the reserve and it was a little bit out of the way from the actual car parks. We got a bit lost finding our way to this location, but we found it in the end. It was an interesting spot full of small pools, though it was slightly boggy underfoot when walking around them.








Common Darter
The sun came out and so did the dragonflies. But sadly, none of them were black darters. They were all common darters and they were busy patrolling these pools. Some of them were partnered up with the males guarding their mate by clasping her at the back of the head with the claspers at the end of his abdomen as she lays an egg by dipping her abdomen into the water while hovering above the surface together. We also saw plenty of small coppers and hornets flying around us and we had buzzards soaring above our heads.





Common Darters laying eggs (sorry for the poor quality)
Small Copper
Hornet (missed the top of it's head, sorry yet again!)
Hoverfly
Fly Mesmbrina meridian


The pond at Dersingham Bog
After spending quite some time exploring the area and searching for these elusive, small black dragonflies, we eventually decided to move on for lunch at Dersingham Bog. While we were at Dersingham, we scanned the area surrounding the boardwalk for black darters and after lunch, David took me to the pond that I was unable to locate on Monday, where they were also suppose to be. Unfortunately, there was no sign of them, just common darters and a southern hawker. I think we were just too late in the season to see these regionally rare beauties. I really should have started the search in August at the peak of their season, but I was just unable to. Oh well! I shall have to try again next summer.
Southern Hawker

Thursday 28 September 2017

Sep 28 Mousehold Heath


Small Copper
This afternoon, I was back at Mousehold to help out with the last butterfly survey of the year with Will the warden. It was reasonably pleasant, though large black clouds did block out the sun a couple of times, but thankfully it did not spoil the survey with rain. The survey itself went well with a total of ten butterflies, not bad for this time of year. This included 6 small coppers, 2 large whites, 1 red admiral and 1 speckled wood. We also saw a rather large common lizard, a frog and several toadstools and mushrooms.


Speckled Wood
Carrion Crow


Sulphur Tuft
Bay Bolete


Porcelain Fungus 

Sep 27th Mousehold Heath


Moth Night beside the Mustard Pond
After the fiasco of last week, Will decided to do another moth evening last night. This time, he had a new generator and a new location for us to meet at. We ended up setting the trap up next to the Mustard Pond, which is the new pond that Will and crew had created a few years ago. This was the first time we've actually done a moth evening on this side of Mousehold before, so it was rather interesting to what would turn up.










Box Tree Moth

Though we didn't catch enough moths to fill the trap, the ones that did still proved to be a challenge to identify and at least four of them could be potentially new to Mousehold. None of them were as exciting as this one, which we believe is a box tree moth. If this is correct, then it is possibly the 5th recording of it's kind in Norfolk. This white moth with brown borders is beautiful to look at, but apparently is a pest to box trees and originates from Asia.





Feathered Rununculus?
 Another moth that had us puzzling over was this one. We know that this is a ranunculus (a bit of a mouthful of a name I know), but we are undecided to which; large or feathered? The logical choice would be large due to the habitat and food plants. However, the markings look similar to that of a feathered rununculus, but the problem is that the ID books say it is a coastal species. It looks like a dull, mottled grey moth, but look closely and you can see a wavy double 'W' marking and a circular marking on the wings. Which means it is a feathered rununculus, right?






White-shouldered Smudge
There weren't too many micro moths entering the trap last night (thank goodness!) and we believe we were confident enough with the identities we came up with for the ones that did. The one that did cause some time to pass until we decided on what it was is this one, which we concluded that it was a white-shouldered smudge. We also caught a light brown apple moth, which proved less of a headache to identify.

Light Brown Apple Moth






















Common Carpet (a rather worn one)


Carpet moths can be as troublesome to identify as micro moths sometimes, especially when they are worn or have their wings closed like a butterfly. But I guess that is the challenge that some of us enjoy (not me though). This worn individual is apparently a common carpet, though it isn't the best specimen around to show you. The patterns are more or less faded away. We will never know what the moth is below with it's wings closed as it escaped before it opened them to reveal it's identity. This is because I opened up the pot it was in to photograph it and the flash from my camera spooked it and caused it to fly off. Oops!



The one that got away!

Barred Sallow
 My favourite moth of the night was this one. This colourful moth is a barred sallow. Like most of the sallow family, it is yellowy-orange but has these two very noticeable pinkish bands, one by the thorax and the other at the bottom of the wings, which helps separate it from the other species in the family. This is a species that emerges between September and November.













Here are some of the other things we caught last night...

Large Yellow Underwing
Light Emerald
Red-legged Shieldbug
Hawthorn Shieldbug

Wednesday 27 September 2017

Sep 27th Strumpshaw Fen


Bearded Tit
A bit of a delay to my arrival to Strumpshaw this morning due to a cancelation to my usual 6:52am train, which meant I had to get a much later train. But despite this delay, I still managed to spend enough time at Fen Hide before my shift began and saw plenty of great things. The main highlight here was the brief visit of an otter, which was so obscured by reeds that I was unable to get a photo of it. No worries, though, as there were other things around that would make most people jealous. There were a few snipe hiding in some short growth along the edge of the spit of land adjacent to the hide, a water rail making a brief cameo, a flock of bearded tits with some posing for the cameras atop of the heads of reeds, and a female kingfisher arrived to get her share of the limelight. I also saw a camera shy lizard on the way back.
Water Rail
Snipe
Kingfisher
Mute Swan
Mallard
Shaggy Inkcap

















Common Darter
Spindle berries
Little Egret

After all that liveliness at Fen Hide, it was rather quiet when I got back to Reception Hide to start my shift. Though I did see another kingfisher making a couple of quick flybys, a little egret (which was apparently catching dragonflies, but I wasn't paying attention and missed the egret doing it), several cormorants and the odd marsh harrier, there wasn't much else that really gripped me like at Fen Hide. I was more busy talking to visitors and listening to my colleagues getting a lesson about the new till and coffee machine that's been installed recently. There's been a lot of new additions to the Reception Hide lately including new food and drink products, a new pricing system and a secret hole for the bin, which many visitors can't seem to find for some reason. Half the hide looks rather modern now. Let's just hope the RSPB doesn't replace us with robots next. Only kidding, they would never do that.
Little Egret with Black-headed Gull
Cormorant
Gadwall
Black-headed Gull with Coot
Black-headed Gull
Black-headed Gulls chasing one another for that bit of weed
Carrion Crow
Robin
Great Tit