My 2020: Review Of The Year

 Let's face it, 2020 was a bad year for all of us. The pandemic has dominated everyone's lives. Either by getting the symptoms yourself, losing a loved one by it or even your job because your business has shut down due to the lockdowns that are in place to reduce the spread of the virus. There's also other things that makes 2020 a year to forget, such as the race riots. But while the world has been fallen apart, I have been trying to keep my mind from thinking about it all and try to distract myself with as much wildlife as I could in such circumstances. So here's how my 2020 went down...

January

It all started quite well. It was a new year and a new decade. The virus was still far away in China to make any impact on my life. I was more interested in starting my new challenge in finding and photographing bird species that I missed over the years. January was a great month for me as I had encounters with a ferruginous duck at Ranworth Broad, a field full of cranes outside Acle and a Slavonian grebe at Wroxham Broad. However, my thoughts weren't completely on birds that month as my granddad was taken into hospital due to heart problems. He spent a few months in hospital, but I'm glad to say that he's made a full recovery since then, at least for now.

February

February was the last full month before the coronavirus outbreak reached the UK. For me, it was a month of owls. The real highlight was travelling to Ipswich by train to see a rather special bird. I had heard of a tawny owl that regularly roosts in a tree in a park there. Although I have seen tawny owls at night before around Norwich, I had never gotten a photo of one before. In Ipswich, this individual has became a local legend, with an owl roosting in the same tree every year since 2007. Though it did disappear in 2017, it returned in 2019 and it was back again this year. It felt rather special to finally see this bird sleeping in full view high up within a hollow of a tree. It was worth the trip as a Norwich City fan into enemy territory to see this beautiful owl.

The rest of the month included a great view of an otter that came out onto land to feast on a fish and a barn owl that landed extremely close to me along the path towards the pump house at Strumpshaw.

March

There was one last adventure before the chaos truly began. During the week of my birthday (March 11th), my parents took me on holiday to Dorset. Despite the weather being a mix bag of rain and sunshine, the week-long trip was fantastic and included a visit to Durdle Door (a famous picturesque sea arch), a spot of fossil hunting and a couple of days at RSPB Arne, where we had great encounters with Dartford warblers and Sika deer. By the end of our stay in Dorset, my adventure didn't end there as I was taken to the Forest of Dean to spend the weekend with a Naturetrek group. Though it was a short extension and the weather was for the most part made things awful with heavy rain showers and extremely muddy paths, my guide made sure my group saw some amazing wildlife that made this forest home. Wild boar with piglets, hawfinches, goshawks, peregrines, little owls, crossbills, ravens, we saw quite a lot of amazing things. However, the highlight had to be seeing my first ever great grey shrike.

The week after, lockdown was announced and when I returned to Strumpshaw, the reserve was yet to decide if to close or not. In the end, after an hour of my shift in Reception Hide, they had made the decision to close up. I had one last walk around the reserve, seeing a barn owl. It would be another 9 months until I could volunteer at Strumpshaw again. 

April-October

Lockdown brought a lot of restrictions in movement and a lot of boredom from not being able to go anywhere outside of Norwich. In April and early May, I didn't really do that much other than to go out for a walk around my local park or at Mousehold Heath. Spring was in the air and for the first time, I felt that I got to experience it and fully open my eyes to what wildlife I could find on my doorstep. Norwich was as wild as any nature reserve, just a lot more overlooked. There were green hairstreaks, green tiger beetles, green and great spotted woodpeckers, a cuckoo (at Thorpe Marshes) and I even heard a lesser whitethroat and a corncrake (also at Thorpe Marshes). I spent Dawn Chorus Day in my local park and it felt like it meant a lot more to me than previous years.

By mid-May, I decided to get into something I'm not at all an expert in; plants. Throughout the summer, I went exploring around the streets and parks and other places in and around the city limits. What I discovered was an amazing array of flora. From four species of orchid and scarcer species such as arrowhead and flowering rush to hare's-foot clover and sand spurrey. I ended up with a long list of plants that I never knew existed in my home city. I have a new appreciation for plants now and I was sad when the summer ended and my list grinded to a halt. 

As the restrictions relaxed and the first lockdown eased, I was allowed to travel further away from Norwich's boundaries. From swallowtails at Hickling Broad to a few visits to the coast to search for migrants at places like Cley and Titchwell. I even had a couple of trips to Strumpshaw for the first time in months. I experienced the strange new one-way route systems at some of these reserves and being inside a hide with a mask on. It was bird watching, but not how it used to be. Social distancing twitching at Wells Wood in September as we all crowded behind a fence and a couple of hay bales looking at a red-backed shrike was something I wouldn't forget.

In October, it was all about the spectacle of the autumn colours produced by the trees in my neighbourhood. The weather was awful though.

November and December

The final two months of 2020 were the least eventful as I barely went out. In November, a second lockdown was in place, but I did sneak in a couple of outings outside of the city. This included a trip to Titchwell where we got some strange looks but saw some great things from shimmering eruptions of golden plovers and a close encounter with a muntjac deer. While at Strumpshaw I discovered my first ever earthstar fungi.

Finally, in December, I was allowed back to volunteering at Strumpshaw since March. I was rewarded with bitterns, otters and a pintail. It was just great to be back, though it was weird helping inside the Reception Hide while obeying to the new social distancing rules and all the tape marking out where we had to stand and move around in. Just to be back and seeing the wildlife and the everchanging weather changing the landscape I was familiar with before the lockdowns, seeing all of it again made up for all the absent weeks I missed being here. And to top things off, I was rewarded with my 10 year service as an RSPB volunteer at Strumpshaw with a silver puffin badge, even though it is a few months early.

Now that Norfolk has entered Tier 4 (pretty much a 3rd lockdown), I'm unsure on how 2021 will be like. Will I ever be allowed to go on big birding outings again? Will I get the vaccine before I get the virus? Whatever happens, I'm sure that next year will be better than this one. Happy new year, everyone!

The Last Shift Of 2020

 Dec 30th  Strumpshaw Fen

Today is my last shift of 2020 and with the new Tier 4 system in place, I was unsure if I was allowed to return back to Strumpshaw at first. But after being told that it was my choice to make, I of course wanted to continue. When I arrived to the reserve this morning, though, I discovered that most of it was out of bounds. The hides were now closed once again and with high water levels, both routes along the river were extremely muddy. So my morning walk before my shift was very limited. All I could really do was walk to the river and back and around the woodland trail. There wasn't much to see either.

Receiving my silver puffin badge

When I returned for my shift at the Reception Hide, Ben showed up and gave me a large envelope. Inside was a certificate and two badges. One was the RSPB logo, the other was in a special box, a silver puffin. The silver puffin badge is only given to volunteers who serve 10 years for the RSPB. I was given this badge a little early than expected as next year marks my 10th anniversary at Strumpshaw. It was a special honour. A late Christmas present and a great way to end the year on.

It was a very cold day today and though the weather was good, there wasn't much to see outside of the Reception Hide. As it was very cold, I went for an extra walk in the woods to warm myself up a bit. At this point in the day, the bird life appeared to be more awake and very active. I stood by the Gnarly Oak for a few minutes and within those few minutes I was surrounded by hundreds of siskins, a few redwings, marsh tits, blue tits, great tits, long-tailed tits, jays and a treecreeper. I tried to spot a redpoll amongst the siskins, but I just couldn't see any at all. On the way back, I had some great views of bullfinches posing well and singing proudly. When I returned back into the hide, the view remained empty other than a flock of sleepy mallards, 3 mute swans, marsh harriers and a sparrowhawk making a quick flyby. Apparently though, while I was on my walk in the woods, I had missed a bittern. Typical! 

Sunrise over the river, Siskin and Bullfinch

I'm Dreaming Of A Grey Strump-mas

 Dec 9th  Strumpshaw Fen

Frost and fog outside Reception Hide

My second shift at Strumpshaw since my return was a bit of a grey day (though it was hammering down with rain when I woke up). Extremely thick fog covered much of the reserve and made it very tricky to spot anything. Outside the Reception Hide, the broad was covered in a thin layer of ice as well as the grey soup that was the fog. I spent most of the morning trying to write up the new sightings blackboard for it to go outside. Sadly, my work became a chalky mess dripping down the board. My blackboard duties is now left for someone else (it just takes way too much of my time that I could use to watch the wildlife). The situation with the chalk pretty much summed up that morning's shift as it was a bit of a waste of time with only ducks (including 40-50 shovelers) and the odd marsh harrier to be seen.

Dec 16th  Strumpshaw Fen

Siskins

A much nicer day than the previous week's shift, but the wildlife was still on the quiet side. Pink-footed geese were flying overhead as I made my way to the Fen Hide, which was open but not very productive. Back in the woods as made my return from my early morning walk, I encountered a large mixed flock of goldfinches and siskins (with possibly a few redpolls amongst them, though I personally didn't spot any) congregating on a couple of alder trees, some feeding on the cones, others just twittering to each other. Meanwhile at the Reception Hide, an otter showed up after a couple of hours of me just staring at the few mallards on the broad. I also glimpsed a female sparrowhawk flash by and a few marsh harriers and buzzards circling above.

Otter

Dec 20th  Catton Park

My monthly walk around my local patch was a bit of a disappointing affair if it wasn't for a low flying buzzard and the odd redwing. Other than that, it was a case of dodging everyone's dogs and not finding much of plant life or anything else for that matter.

Dec 23rd  Strumpshaw Fen

This morning was very similar to the one on Dec 9th, grey and wet. When I arrived at Strumpshaw this morning it was extremely foggy, but it soon deteriorated and made way for heavy spells of rain, which was on and off throughout my shift today. Between the showers, I was lucky enough to spot a bittern fly in and out of the reedbeds surrounding the broad. Occasionally it would land into the edge of the reedbeds to the point that you could just make it out or even see the reeds move, bending down by the weight of the bird. I couldn't get any photos sadly as the light was poor and my camera was having a difficult time of focusing on it before it eventually flew off and out of side down into a fairly distant reedbed on the far right side of the broad. 

Shortly after the bittern vanished, an otter appeared. The gadwall and mallard floating on the broad took a while to notice that it was swimming by them all until the fear finally kicked in. The otter hung around for quite some time, maybe an hour, just diving around hunting for fish. There was a moment where it was fighting with something big like a pike before carrying it off in its mouth towards a reedbed in order to eat it. A bittern and an otter, some might say that this is a perfect early Christmas present during a year plagued by a pandemic. A little bit of joy in a world currently full of woe.

6 Years On!

It is now 6 years since I started doing this blog and boy, has it been the most challenging year I've ever had. To be honest, I have considered quitting it. Not only has the whole lockdown thing been keeping me from really going very far, Blogger has had a bit of a makeover recently, which has taken a bit of getting used to. You have probably noticed that I don't post that much anymore and when I do, there's a different format to how I usually do my posts. I now write everything I've done collectively whenever I feel like it. However, I'm hoping that I will start a new wildlife challenge or two for next year if things go to plan, so look forward to that.

Now that it is now winter, I just haven't been out much other than work and Strumpshaw on Wednesdays (I will post update soon!). But back in May, after being bored out of my mind during lockdown, I decided to make the most of this plentiful free time exploring the city of Norwich, the place I call home, and to get to grips with a subject I'm not too good at. Plant hunting became an almost daily quest and it gave me some joy in a time which was rather uncertain. I got to visit places near my home that I barely go to and I've discovered some things I never knew I could find in this urban environment.

I only officially started this unexpected new hobby 2 months into lockdown, but I was already accumulating a large list of plants. There were still a few species that were lingering from April when I first started such as honesty, bluebells and cowslip as well as mid-May plants that were only just sprouting like bird's-foot trefoil, ox-eyed daisies, forget-me-nots, poppies and red valerian. When spring became summer, more and more exciting and colourful plants were appearing. Among them were orchids, which I managed to find 4 species (bee, southern mars, common spotted and pyramidal). There were also a few very special species like arrowhead, flowering rush, river water-dropwort, sand spurrey, cudweed and dwarf mallow.

For a city, you'd be amazed on how many types of habitats Norwich has. There's of course the grassy fields and woodlands of the local parks and the river Wensum, but there's also the heathlands of Mousehold Heath, the broads of Whitlingham and the boggy meadows of Thorpe Marshes and Carey's Meadow, not to mention the cemeteries, the tiny patches of unused land and even the between the cracks in the pavement in the city itself. Some of these plants were only found at one site, while many others I found pretty much everywhere. As I'm pretty much a novice at plant IDing, I used an app on my phone to help me out for the most part, though for how accurate it is I'm not a hundred percent sure. I have lost count on the amount of times I took a photo of something yellow only for it being either cat's-ear or smooth sow-thistle. I expect that for every hundred or so species I've found, another few hundred or so eluded me due to my inexperience. 

When autumn came around, it was all about trees. The colours on the leaves were changing and were spectacular this year, unlike the weather which was awful throughout much of October. Just like the wildflowers I've discovered throughout the spring and summer, it was an interesting mix of native and non-native species. Though I tried to exclude escapees as best I could, I only included the ones I found that weren't growing in someone's garden. In the case of non-native trees, I only included the ones along my local streets rather those planted in some of the public parks such as Chapelfield Gardens where so many exotic trees were purposefully planted. 

My list was pretty big to really count or mention fully here, but here's a few other highlights; lords and ladies, wild strawberry, field pansy, ivy-leaved toadflax, groundsel, heath groundsel, common fumitory, meadow saxifrage, celery-leaved buttercup, large bittercress, viper's bugloss, common broomrape, clary sage, biting stonecrop, bell and ling heather, vervain, enchanter's nightshade, hare's-foot clover, dark mullein, fig-leaved goosefoot, amphibious bistort, centaury, soapwort, gallant soldier, sun spurge, pellitory-of-the-wall, corn spurrey, autumn crocus, genko tree, mistletoe.

Now that it is December, the plant hunt has ground to a halt. I will continue the list up until next May to make it a complete year. If you know any plants I can look for from now until next spring, let me know. I would love to find something new before Christmas. Thank you all for all your support on this project so far. I know many of you have enjoyed my urban plant hunting adventures and I'd love for them to continue.

The Return

 Nov 22nd  Strumpshaw Fen

While the second lockdown was still going on, I haven't really been doing much other than video games and work. With the days getting shorter and my plant list being on hiatus due to a lack of new plants to add with it being winter, I just haven't had the same enthusiasm for nature as I did in the previous lockdown. So, Mum decided to drop me off at Strumpshaw for a walk to get me back into the mood. 

Earthstars

The latest lockdown meant that all the hides were once again closed off to the public. And with the river flooding the path to Tower Hide, turning it into a muddy mess as it does every winter, there weren't many routes left open to explore other than the circuit leading through the woodland trail and pass the pumphouse. To be fair, there wasn't much to see anyway. I saw more families out for a walk than wildlife sightings on this occasion. However, the real highlight was finding a few earthstars. I've never found this fungi on my own before, let alone at Strumpshaw, so I was extremely pleased with myself. I'm not an expert on fungi, but there was no denying that they were very beautiful to look at, resembling like fungal versions of flowers. I also found plenty of candlesnuff fungi as well as siskins, marsh tits, marsh harriers and a Chinese water deer.

Dec 2nd  Strumpshaw Fen

Today, I have returned to Strumpshaw not as a visitor but back as a volunteer. It was finally time to wear the RSPB uniform once again, the first time since March on the day the reserve closed due to lockdown. It has been a long time waiting and now I had to get back into the habit of getting up at the crack of dawn, using public transport (which I had been avoiding since that day in March) and the walk to the reserve from Brundall station. When I arrived, the moon was still bright in the sky as the sun was rising. A thin layer of mist and frost cloaked the landscape and it was a tad nippy as I made my first walk around the reserve as a volunteer in a while. The view outside the hides was rather flooded, while the hides themselves weren't quite open yet for me to enter (the Fen Hide officially reopened later that morning). There were pheasants everywhere and I had a few encounters with muntjac and Chinese water deer and I even startled a hare that ran pass me along the path to the pumphouse. I also saw pink-footed geese fly over, a snipe and some redwings.

Checking in for my induction into volunteering under Covid-19 restrictions, I was taught how to operate in the Reception Hide safely and even got back into refilling the bird feeders (no sign of Percy the persistent pheasant though). My role now was to make coffees for visitors and place them on a tray for my colleague, Tricia, to collect. I have to keep my distance, sanitise every time I make a coffee as well as wear a mask while I make them and before I leave, I have to sanitise everything I touched in the hide. It was utter madness! If a time travelling birdwatcher from the past was to see how this set up was like, they'd probably think we've all gone insane and I wouldn't blame them. But this is  how things are now. I was just happy to be back despite all this crazy nonsense behind the scenes.

Otter, Frosty Sunrise at Fen Hide and Pintail

While everything inside the hide was bonkers, everything outside it was a welcoming distraction. It felt like the wildlife was welcoming me back in style as a good chunk of my first shift back in the hide was dominated by the presence of an otter that was hunting out on the broad. It even caught a couple of fish during its long stay, feasting on one of them (possibly an eel) within the reedy islands. And the otter wasn't the only big highlight celebrating my return as I had 2 sightings of 2 separate bitterns fly out of the reedbeds and across the broad to land in a different section of reedbed and amongst the mallards and gadwall in front of the hide was a male pintail. The pintail was a bit scruffy in the plumage, but it still topped off a memorable day back at Strumpshaw as a volunteer.

No-Go-November?

 Nov 4th  Mousehold Heath

A second lockdown was about to occur, though with a few differences to the one in the spring as schools were allowed to continue. For me, it meant I was likely back to being restricted to searching for plants and other wildlife within the city for at least another month. Of course, plants are thin on the ground at the moment as we move into winter. Even the trees were losing their leaves, providing me with very little to photograph for my lockdown plant collection for November. However, the lack of leaves on the trees can actually be a good thing if I was to seek out one of the most festive and fascinating plants around.

Mistletoe

Walking down to Mousehold Heath along Wall Road, I discovered clumps of green balls hanging within the bare branches of a few trees lined beside the end of the road. Mistletoe. They were all very high up to get any clear close up, as typical of this parasitic plant. I noticed a few white berries that weren't eaten by the birds already. It is the birds that got the mistletoe up there in the first place. When they eat these berries, it causes very sticky poops when they pass through their digestive systems. When it comes out, it sticks to their glands and the only way to rid of them is to wipe their bottoms to a bare branch. With a new location and instant fertiliser from the bird dropping it came out as, the mistletoe is then able to sprout and tap into the host tree to leech out all its nutrients without needing to set root into the ground. Despite all this success in manipulating the birds to carry its offspring elsewhere, I haven't actually found that many clumps within the city or even around Mousehold itself.

At Mousehold, I was only able a few trees that I hadn't added yet, such as hazel. I felt that my visit was more of an escape from the reality we're currently in for at least a few hours. I was able to forget about lockdown and surround myself with the visual beauty of autumn as well as the smells and sounds that accompany it at this time of year. The colours of the leaves, the fungi sprouting out here and there and the foraging activities of squirrels and jays and even seeing the several moths that are found on the wing during the winter months are enough to lift my mental state for at least a few minutes. 

Nov 8th  Titchwell

Travelling many miles to Titchwell during this second lockdown with my parents was not exactly my idea. It goes against what the government wants us to do in keeping the virus from spreading any faster. The way I see it though, as long as you stay within your 'social bubble' and keep your distance from other people, I can't see why you can't visit nature reserves. As much as this second lockdown is important, keeping yourself from going mentally unstable is also important. Being out and enjoying nature is the best medicine of battling depression and other mental illnesses. It has been proved that being amongst nature gives you the endorphins you need that help relieve stress, even if it is just a short walk in the park. Still, that didn't prevent us from getting some disappointed looks from the few volunteers left manning the reserve that made us feel rather guilty for our visit.

To begin with, it felt like no one else was around. Walking around the boardwalk section of the reserve, we encountered a muntjac deer grazing near the path and we managed to get within a few metres of it without scaring it off. In fact it never ran away when we got too close while trying to pass it, the deer just casually backed away, focusing more on its grassy meal than at us. 

Muntjac Deer, Golden Plover and Pintail

As all the hides were closed off again, we could only view the birds on the pools from the main path. This was fine by me. We sat on a bench overlooking the freshwater pool and had a little picnic, while watching hundreds, maybe thousands of golden plover take to the air and swirl above our heads, unsure if to land back down or not. A fantastic display to entertain us while we were eating. During our visit, we also saw grey plover, ringed plover, redwings, brambling, brent and pink-footed geese, marsh harriers, avocets, bearded tits, curlews, oystercatchers, redshanks, little egrets, turnstones, sanderlings, linnets, stonechats and 3 handsome pintails with one female. Out at sea, I scanned up a great crested grebe and a red-throated diver as well as a blackbird flying over the waves and landing into the dunes behind us. All in all, it was a great day at Titchwell, guilty or not.

Nov 17th  Catton Park

Today, I decided to make my monthly walk around my local park to search for plants. A bit of a waste of time, I know, but I did find a few plants that I've seen in the spring and summer that for some reason got their seasons wrong and decided to bloom now. Buttercups, green alkanets, mayweed, bramble, the list goes on. Though it's just a handful of each (up to a single plant to a small group of 2-3), it is still a very odd sight. Besides that, it was just another walk to keep my sanity from going over the edge and enjoying what was around me.

Wet-tober

 Oct 10th  Cley

October has been a rather wet month this year. It has been raining so much that I haven't had too many days in which I could do a lot of wildlife watching. Due to this and the whole Covid-19 second wave thing, I have been feeling rather fed up and a bit depressed lately. To cheer me up somewhat, Mum took me and my brother, his wife and little Ava to Cley on a rare sunny day earlier in the month. The wind was slightly chilly while we were having a picnic before we head out onto the reserve, but at least it wasn't raining. 

Guillemots

Bird wise, the trip wasn't the most memorable in terms of rarities, seeing mostly common species I've seen many times such as wigeon, curlews, little egrets, etc, but at least I was out in the fresh air. While the rest of my family skimmed stones across the waves as they entertained Ava, I did a bit of sea watching. Gannets were easy to spot with their size, shape and plumage colours, the guillemots, on the other hand, were less obvious as they bobbed up and down on the waves close to shore. Even though they were right in front of us, they made things hard to locate them especially when they decide to dive suddenly. On the way back, the sunny day that we thought was going to last for the remainder of the visit disappeared and was replaced with a short shower that lasted until we returned to the visitor centre's car park. Typical!

Oct 19th  Catton Park

The weather continued to be a bit of a downer for the most part since that trip to Cley. The physically demanding aspect of work was taking a toll on my body, so I took a week off at the same time my parents took the same week to visit my younger brother in Cheltenham. However, I decided to stay in Norwich instead of travelling with them, partly because my bedroom window was scheduled to be repaired with a new hinge. Left to my own devices, I had to think up things to do. I decided to spend a couple of days during my break to continue my plant list. 

Because the weather had been rubbish this month, I haven't really had much opportunity to go out and add anything new, not that there's much to add at this time of year. The flowering season is pretty much over now, so I decided to focus my attention to trees. Though I have already included the more commoner species such as oak, beech, lime, London plane and silver birch, I have saved plenty of other species for this moment right now. It is autumn and the city is awash with a variety of colours on the trees. Armed with a camera and my phone's app, I took a walk around the block and to my local park to see what I could possibly can find. 

Many of the trees in my area were planted many years ago and half of them are non-native. If I thought the wild plants were hard for an amateur like me to identify, these trees were even worse as my app was suggesting all sorts of things. Many of these strange alien trees originated from either Asia or North America or even elsewhere. Along the streets as I walked towards the park included American red gum (though it could also be oriental sweet-gum), white poplar, scots pine and ginkgo to name a few. The park itself had a good mix of sweet and horse chestnuts (with their spiky conker capsules littering the ground), maple, holly, beech, yew, oak and spindle (with their bright pink and orange berries on full display). 

Spindle Berries, Yellow Stagshorn & American Red Gum Leaf (possibly?)

As well as trees, there were plenty of fungi sprouting from the ground and out of tree trunks. Plants are hard enough, fungi are even harder. I'm not making a fungi list any time soon. There are just way too many of them and a lot of them look similar to one another. However, that doesn't stop me from admiring them. There were plenty of interesting fungi in the woods, but none were as spectacular as what I believe is a yellow stagshorn sprouting like a coral on a couple of stumps. The colouring was so vivid that it was hard to miss amongst the dark shade of the woodland floor. Buzzards, jays and squirrels were also seen today.

Oct 20th  Norwich

Continuing my tree search, I took a stroll into the city armed with just the camera on my phone. The plant app on my phone was telling me what my findings were along the way including sweet cherry, Japanese crab apple, American ivy, pin oak, Norway fir, sallow, Babylon weeping willow, mountain elm and one by the Norwich Playhouse theatre that the app got confused as a fern. After lunch at the market, I visited Chapelfield Gardens. This park had plenty of foreign trees, many of which the app couldn't put a confident name too. I'm not sure if I should add any of them to my list anyway. However, I could add the autumn crocuses, that formed a wonderful display in the grass at one corner of the park, to my list with complete confidence. These crocuses were a little bigger than the ones I see growing in the spring and as their name suggests only grow in the autumn.

Autumn Crocuses

And that was the last real wildlife-based outing I've made this month. I was going to visit Strumpshaw today (Oct 30th), but annoyingly I have developed a cold and I don't want to risk making it worse out in the damp cold. I'm at least thankful that it isn't Covid, but it really sums up this month to me. I really have felt down in the dumps this month with reports of rare birds showing up along the coast (including a 'mega' of a sighting in the form of a rufous bush chat in which thousands of people gathered at Stiffkey like some mass pilgrimage with the social distancing rules seeming to be thrown out of the window) and I just couldn't travel to any of them and not to mention all the torrential rain and the threat of Covid-19 keeping me from wanting to go out in the first place. And now I'm sick with a cold. It has not been a great month for me has it?

Butcher Bird

 Sep 24th  Wells Woods

A brown shrike had been hanging around for around a week in North Norfolk and I couldn't organize a trip sooner due to no way of getting to it. Yesterday was my only opportunity as Dad was free to take me. However, it had not been seen since Tuesday. The weather was bad that day and I thought it may reappear again. It wasn't to be, sadly. I had missed my chance. If only I was there a couple of days ago. When we got to Warham Greens, where the bird had been reported, all we found were hundreds of greylags, the first skeins of pink-footed geese, a great white egret and a friendly birdwatcher who ended up tagging along with us to our next destination.

Wells Woods has been a bit of a migrant hotspot recently. In the last few days there was a red-breasted flycatcher, a red-backed shrike and a yellow-browed warbler and to my amazement, they were still around during our visit. The only thing is I didn't know where about on the site they were. We had vague landmarks and directions by passers by, but nothing from stopping us from accidently straying away from their whereabouts. The spot for the flycatcher was the only obvious location marked by a few birdwatchers, but the bird itself was nowhere to be seen. We were told it was last seen an hour and a half ago, so we decided to check out the shrike first. However, we missed the turning and ended up walking down towards Holkham Pines by mistake. 

Red Kite

Realising our mistake, we retraced our steps, had lunch at a bench and returned to the flycatcher spot. Still no flycatcher in sight, though it did apparently reappeared 30 minutes before I showed up again. I waited for a short while, but the only notable thing to be seen was a red kite. We decided to move on to the shrike, following the correct path this time, passing a field of pink-footed geese. A group of people standing along a barbed wired fence and leaning on some hay bales pointing their cameras in the same direction gave us hope and we were instantly directed to the bird sitting on another section of wire.

Red-backed Shrike and those watching it!

Believe it or not, this was my first red-backed shrike in the UK. I did see a couple while in France in 2016, but never in this country. They had been another one of those birds that have eluded me for so long, until now that is. This bird is a juvenile, lacking the colours and bold black masks of the adults. We watched as it jumped between the fence, the ground and a low hanging bramble branch, hoping to see if it catches something to do what most shrikes are known for; stashing its prey on thorns or barbs on a wire. This is why they are also called butcher birds. I was slightly disappointed not to witness such behaviour, though kind of relieved at the same time. This may not have been the brown shrike that I was intended in seeing, but I'm still satisfied in adding this particular shrike to my British list.

After spending some time with this wonderful bird, it was time to try our luck with the flycatcher one more time. On the way, 3-4 red kites circled around above our heads, one was even low enough to see every detail of it. They were joined by two buzzards circling even higher than they were. It made up for the lack of flycatcher as it yet again never showed itself while I was around. While waiting for it, a sudden short downpour caught us by surprise, though it was at this point someone managed to spot a possible tree pipit while it was raining. No red-breasted flycatcher or yellow-browed warbler, but at least I was lucky with the shrike. One out of three is a success in my book.

Back To Normal?

Sep 4th  Cley

It is September and migrant season has well and truly been happening while I have been stuck in Norwich. As I haven't been able to travel to the coast, I have been missing everything that has passed through so far. Red-backed shrikes, greenish warblers, pied flycatchers, wrynecks, I have missed them all. I want to at least see something before it disappears for warmer climes further south. So on Friday 4th, Dad took me out to Cley to see what we can find.

Since my last visit, two hides are now reopen to visitors, Bishop's and Babcock. The three central hides are still closed, but for the other two you need to wear a mask. From Bishop's Hide, there were avocets, ruff, wigeon, godwits, a green sandpiper, a kestrel and a marsh harrier. A good mix of migrants and the usual suspects, but nothing completely out of the unusual. From the shelter at the top of the East Bank, I watched a curlew sandpiper mingling with a flock of dunlin out on Arnold's Marsh, while behind them were large gathering of sandwich and common terns and then a hobby flew over and spooked them all up. There were migrants a plenty here.

A spot of sea watching didn't produce much other than gannets, the same tern species again, the usual gull species and a seal. Seeing a wheatear whilst walking along the beach was as good as it got when it came to migrants of interest. I also came across 3 devil's coach horse beetles, a rather ferocious beetle that raises its abdomen when threatened.  

Wheatear and Devil's Coach Horse Beetle

Sep 8th  Strumpshaw Fen

A second visit to Strumpshaw with Dad since lockdown. With Covid-19 spiking again, it has meant that my return as a volunteer is uncertain right now. However, the reserve feels like it is almost back to the way it was. Apart from a makeshift booth at the entrance of Reception Hide for one volunteer to man, the other two hides are reopen but with limited benches and you need to wear a mask and the one-way route system is abandoned for most of the reserve's paths. Only the Lackford Run was one-way only.

Otter, Grass Snake, Garganey and Great White Egret

 When we arrived, we were greeted by an otter and a passing kingfisher from Reception Hide's blind. We found a willow emerald damselfly at the new pond, we walked by at least 20 or so lizards and a few interesting solitary wasp species along Sandy Wall, bearded tits and Cetti's warblers were calling here and there, dark bush crickets were sitting atop of bramble leaves and signs of autumn were abundant throughout the reserve from fruit and seeds to fungi. The best place to be, however, was Tower Hide. There seemed to be more things here than anywhere else at Strumpshaw. Below the hide, a grass snake basks in the sun coiled atop of a patch of flattened dried reed. Many ducks in eclipse phased plumage were out on the pool in front of the hide, including a garganey, which you could ID with the white stripes sandwiching the eye. A couple of kingfishers flit by back and forth in a heated territorial dispute, a marsh harrier and a kestrel were busy hunting over the reserve's reed beds and a great white egret appeared after a while to sit atop of a shrub. 

Sep 15th Cley

Yesterday, I returned to Cley. This time I was with Mum, who celebrated a big birthday recently. I started the visit with a spot of sea watching near the beach car park, not that there was much to see as it was rather misty. A few gannets, cormorants, gulls and a seal were all I could work out through the strange grey murk on this hot sunny day. There were more beach goers on the beach than there were seabirds it seemed. From Bishop's Hide, there appeared to be fewer birds than there were earlier in the month. Avocets, wigeons and many of the other things I saw from last time were nowhere to be found on the pools and scrapes, though lapwings,a few godwits and a green sandpiper still remain and were now joined by a large gaggle of  Canada geese and there was a kestrel using the thatched roofs of the three central hides that still are unused as its vantage point.

Curlew Sandpiper

As we walked along the East Bank, I noticed that the curlew sandpiper was closer to the path this time, feeding along the edge of a meandering pool with some dunlin and redshanks. On the way back, someone pointed out a peregrine that was sitting on a bank on the far side of the marsh. Mum was hoping to see a marsh harrier, but she was bamboozled when she mistook a buzzard flying into the blinding sun as one. She was fairly disappointed when I corrected her.

Calms Between Storms

Aug 13th, 15th & 26th  Norwich

This month had started in extreme heat and was unbearable for me t want to go outside. But, after the first week, all this changed and the plants had a bit of life back into them as the rain arrived. August was to become a very stormy month with thunderstorms, torrential rain and strong winds plaguing the remaining few weeks. With the weather being unpredictable, I haven't been going out much apart from work and family outings.

New plant species have also been few and far between. My list has suddenly come to a crawl. However, I did manage to find the odd new addition to my list on my walks around the city. Along the edge of Anglia Square's car parks were sun spurge, a green flowering plant that everyone seems to take no notice. Growing from a few bollards by another car park next to the A147 bridge were some gallant soldiers, which look like tiny daisies clumped together. I've also found soapwort, perennial wall rocket and corn marigold on walks to work and to my parent's house, not to mention that ivy is now in flower.

Gallant Soldier (left) and Perennial Wall Rocket

Away from plants, I've also enjoyed a night listening to several tawny owls calling from outside my flat. Though it was really dark to see, I believed I heard at least 2 males hooting and a female 'kewicking'. I attempted to call one over and it seemed to have worked as one appeared to be calling much closer than before.

Aug 22nd  Titchwell



Birdwatching with a mask

On Saturday, Mum and I went to visit Titchwell. The reserve was almost back to normal to the way it was before lockdown, but with a few difference. You can no longer leave your membership card on the dashboard like you did before, so if you are thinking of visiting, remember to take it with you. Another change is that only two hides are open again and you need to wear a mask whenever you enter them. Birdwatching with a mask is a bit annoying as it causes your breath to constantly fog up the binoculars. I found a better alternative is to use the benches outside along the main path as you not only don't need to wear a mask, but also have good views of the birds on the pools whilst sitting down. The perfect makeshift hides, that is as long as no one else is sitting on them.

The main highlight of the visit was seeing about 9-10 spoonbills mostly sleeping out on the freshwater pool. We also saw curlews, ruffs, oystercatchers, redshanks, dunlin, common terns, lapwing, godwits, shelducks, hundreds of gulls, a kestrel, a lizard darting in front of us and a few blood-nosed beetles crawling across the path.

Spoonbills and Bloody-nosed Beetle

Aug 1st Cley & Aug 8th Catton Park

Aug 1st  Cley

This was my first visit to the coast since lockdown began. It was kind of a strange feeling to see the sea and walk along shingled beaches once again after many months stuck further inland. Cley was open again and as popular as ever. Just like Hickling and Strumpshaw, there were some restrictions at this reserve that followed Covid-19 guidelines. The hides were closed off, but you could still walk the main looping route of the main reserve (in either direction). The visitor centre was only open for the café for takeaway only, while volunteers were outside greeting people at a makeshift reception area complete with a sightings board and nearby was a mobile toilet block for those who really need to go while the centre's toilets are out of bounds.

Chicory

Mum and I only had time to walk from the main car park to the beach and back via the East Bank this time around. However, this was just enough to satisfy what we've missed about this place. The East Bank and the shingle dunes were covered in plants I couldn't add to my lockdown list as this wasn't Norwich. Chicory, yellow-horned poppies and sticky groundsel were all tempting for me to break my own list rules, but no, I resisted! Other than plants, I saw the usual coastal birds such as avocets, curlews, and other waders, including a common sandpiper. Out over the waves were mainly sandwich terns, but not much else. I had a brief sighting of a bearded tit, but was disappointed to not see a single marsh harrier. I was also unfortunate to not find any grayling butterflies on the dunes despite being told that they were around there.

Aug 8th  Catton Park

It has been an extremely hot week this week. It was so overwhelmingly hot that I didn't really had the energy to want to go anywhere other than to work. But yesterday (Aug 8th) was a lot cooler, so I went for a walk around my local park to see if there was anything to add to my plant list. However, it was rather slim pickings. As there hasn't been much rain in the last couple of weeks, the plants looked dried out and dead. The fields were no longer yellow but purple as knapweed dominated the uncut areas of the park. Wild carrot were the most visible umbellifer poking out amongst all this purple. Some of them have their heads clenched up like a weaver's basket.

Green-veined White on Knapweed

August is often known as the quiet month. The sound of bird song of spring is now replaced by the chirping of grasshoppers and crickets. Common blue butterflies and other butterfly species were still on the wing but were changing their nectar pallets from bird's-foot trefoil to the abundant knapweeds. While most of the other birds have now fall silent, I still managed to hear the yaffle of the green woodpecker before catching a glimpse of it flying into the woods. I also saw its smaller cousin, the great spotted woodpecker searching the bark of a dead ancient oak.


I have a feeling that I might struggle to find new additions to my plant list this month. In July, I was given a list of plant species to look for and where to find them. I had a bit of mixed fortune with that particular list, but now I would like to know if there is anything else I should look out for during August. It can be anything from broad-leaved or green flowered helleborines to autumn hawksbeard, hop or common toadflax, for example. I'll even include invasive species such as knotweed and orange balsam, etc. Don't forget, they must be within Norwich.

Return To Strumpshaw

July 22nd  Norwich

I spent the afternoon plant hunting in parts of Norwich I didn't visit yet. First was Earlham Cemetery where I was told broad-leaved helleborines had been seen up until last year when they were apparently mowed down before they could flower. Did the cemetery owners learned a lesson and left these scarce city orchids to recover? Not that I could tell. I couldn't find them in the whereabouts that I was directed to. So I think these orchids are no more sadly.

 

After walking to the market for lunch, I made my way to a patch of unused grass along Queens Road where I was told that narrow-leaved ragwort grew. I found the plant surprisingly easily. It has ragwort like flowers, but were more loose than growing in a cluster like most ragworts I've seen and the leaves were noticeably thin as the name suggested. However, when it came to looking it up in my plant ID books when I got home, I couldn't find it in any of them. I had to look it up online to learn more about it. Apparently, this is an escapee originating from South Africa that has now colonised across Europe.

 

July 28th  Norwich

 

A walk along the river Wensum. I didn't find too many new things for my plant list. However, I did discover new locations of plants that I found before such as fumitory, hare's-foot clover and flowering rush (that was growing much closer to my side of the river). New additions include upright hedge parsley, rose campion and teasel.

 

July 30th  Strumpshaw Fen

 

It feels like forever since I was last here. The last time I was at Strumpshaw was in March on the day they made the decision to close up half way into my shift due to lockdown. At the start of July, the reserve finally reopened itself to the public albeit with restrictions as the staff had to come up ways to follow regulation rules to keep everyone safe yet allow everyone to enjoy nature. Yesterday, I finally had the opportunity to visit with Dad to see what changes were made.



Reception Hide Post Lockdown

 

First thing I noticed was the Reception Hide area. Picnic benches were placed near the fence of the courtyard, signs were placed everywhere including one telling you that only one family/person was allowed in the toilets at a time and, perhaps the most drastic change, the blind by the hide (currently locked) had the back panel opened up for easy access for one family at a time to view the broad.

 

A one-way system was put in place across the reserve with arrowed signs telling you where and where not to go. At the top of Sandy Wall, you then had the choice to go either towards the pumphouse and the woods or along the river and down the Lackford Run. Either direction led to a long walk to get back to the reserve's entrance without disobeying the arrow system. I encountered only 2 families going back the wrong direction along Sandy Wall, everyone else seemed fine with this system. Another thing I noticed was that as all the hides were closed, the path leading to Fen Hide was now overgrown completely.

 

It was a very hot day on my return to Strumpshaw, a complete contrast to when I was last here in March. I have missed this place. I have missed the wildlife, the familiar faces I see every week and even the hectic chaos of the swallowtail season. Though, I did see a swallowtail at Hickling last month, it didn't have the same fanfare of having hundreds of people from far and wide armed with cameras crowding around one fluttering over the flower bed. The swallowtail season is now over (at least for the first wave) and now the baton is handed over to the next impressive butterfly on the reserve, the silver-washed fritillary. Though my priority was to explore post-lockdown Strumpshaw, seeing one of these butterflies would make my day even better.

 

Exploring the reserve on such a hot day was energy sapping and the wildlife mirrored this feeling. It was very quiet and only insects seemed to be the most visible lifeforms around, everything else appeared to be hiding, sheltering from the heat. Dad and I sat down on the platformed bench at the top of Sandy Wall for a moment. Suddenly, we noticed something cat-sized stroll by like a cat with a crow or something in its mouth, wings being dragged along the ground before disappearing part way down Sandy Wall into a reed bed. What was it? I wasn't sure, but I think possibly a mink, though it could also had been a stoat. All I saw was something brown with slightly fluffy or waterlogged fur and was as big as a cat, perhaps an inch or two smaller. It went by so fast in its leisurely pace that I couldn't grab the camera quick enough.

 

Silver-washed Fritillary

After lunch on the new-ish platform over a ditch after walking by the pumphouse, we continued our walk into the woodland trail. Along the way, our first silver-washed fritillary flew over us. It wasn't to be the last as we encountered a few more along a clearing with plenty of bramble bushes. We found yet another on the buddleia behind Reception Hide when we completed our guided loop around the reserve. We also saw a marsh harrier, a kestrel, orange balsam and a bunch of other plants that I can't include to my Norwich list and heard buzzards, Cetti's warblers, green woodpeckers and a kingfisher. We also made a short visit to Buckenham Marshes after our Strumpshaw walk, seeing a Chinese water deer and a strange swarm of flies flying over my dad's head like a moving black dotted cloud.

Lockdown Lifts, Plant Hunting Continues!

July 9th  Waterloo Park

 

The weather had been playing me around last week. It had been raining most days and last Thursday was no exception. I was making my way to work, opting to walking to the other side of the city and avoiding the bus where it is compulsory to wear a mask. But avoiding the mask isn't the real reason why I walk to work since lockdown began, it also gives me the chance to plant hunt. A good chunk of my plant findings is from these kind of walks.

Dark Mullein

During this particular walk, I made a quick pop in to Waterloo Park where I was told that there was a dark mullein nearby the main gate entrance which I had missed beforehand. It didn't take long until I found it in the spitting rain. Compared to the other mullein surrounding it, this was much smaller and daintier. A mullein on a diet. But what it lacked in size, it gained in attractiveness. The flowers are yellow like the other mulleins, but the anthers are reddish purple. I made a few quick photos with my phone before leaving.

 

July 11th Catton Park

 

I was back at Catton Park hoping to locate the three plants I was looking for during the weekend before. The sand spurrey and the flixweed still eluded me and what's more, the area I was told they were in was mowed down for the most part. However, it wasn't a complete waste of time as I discovered the fig-leaved goosefoot that was the other plant from that trio on my list. It didn't look like it was anything special as it was mostly leaves with barely anything that resembles flowers growing on it.

 

Thankfully, there were a few other more attractive plants in and around the park that I was more than happy to add to my Norwich plant list. First, a couple of stands of centaury with bright pink flowers poking out of the mowed grass in front of the park's lodge building. I was amazed on how they managed to escape the mower. Meanwhile, a walk along the horse paddock outside the park revealed a clump of thyme (I think) and a few fox-and-cubs (a bright orange garden escapee that has now naturalized).

 

July 14th  Cary's Meadow & Whitlingham Broad

 

Dad took me out plant hunting on Tuesday. Our first stop was Cary's Meadow. The orchids from last time were now gone, though I did find one pyramidal orchid. The site may have been lacking in orchids, however, this site was still producing new additions of other kinds of plants. Water mint, apple mint, vervain, ribbed melilot and red bartsia to name a few.

 

We then had a quick walk at some wooded footpath in Trowse, only adding an enchanter's nightshade. After that, we went around Whitlingham Broad. I showed Dad the pyramidal orchid field and the various other plants I found there and the edge of the main broad from my previous visit. On this occasion, I chalked up a few new species such square-stalked St John's-wort, meadow cranesbill, perennial sowthistle (which was like a very tall dandelion type of thing), snowberry and bristly oxtongue (another dandelion like thing but with spiky, hairy leaves). I couldn't find any bur-marigolds or any other things I was told to find, but I guess the car park ticket put pressure on our search as time on it was running out.

 

July 17th  Mousehold Heath

 

I could finally join Will the Mousehold warden to help him with a butterfly survey. During lockdown, he had been doing it by himself due to social distancing regulations. Today, he was confident to have me tag along. The only drawback was that I had to make my own way to and from Mousehold on foot as he couldn't pick me up due to these regulations. I was more used to walking everywhere at this point to really let that bother me.

 

The weather was good and it led to possibly the best survey we've ever recorded at Mousehold. In total, we counted 178 butterflies. This included 35 gatekeepers, 27 meadow browns, 26 large whites, 23 small whites, 10 ringlets, 10 purple hairstreaks, 10 holly blues, 9 small/Essex skippers, 7 speckled woods, 5 green-veined whites, 4 commas, 3 peacocks, 2 red admirals and 2 large skippers.

Purple Hairstreak &Sand Spurrey

I was also delighted to finally tick off sand spurrey off my list. A friend of mine found them a week or so ago nearby a particular oak tree and when I went with him on Saturday, they appeared to have finished flowering. So I completely surprised while doing the butterfly transect with Will that they were in flower once again. Are these extremely tiny flowers always this temperamental?

July 4th & 5th Norwich

July 4th  Marriot's Way

 

After watching Norwich lose without scoring for the umpteenth time, I felt like I just had to get out and plant hunt to remove the thoughts of relegation from my mind. The weather was a bit gloomy, but I guess it matched the feeling I had for my team's performance. My route for this particular walk was to head to the river via Marriot's Way. 

 

A comment from a previous post of mine provided me a list of plants that I had know idea about which were all close to where I lived (thanks James). A couple of these plants were in front of a set of garages literally just around the corner from my flat. I never even heard of either of them let alone knew that they were so close to home. One, the dwarf mallow, was easier to find as it formed a small clump of leaves with tiny purple flowers by the garage door. The other, the common cudweed, was not quite so obvious. It was small and looked like something prehistoric but in miniature like a spiky club with minute flowers that are barely visible. Apparently, this strange plant is listed as Near Threatened though locally common in Norfolk.



Dwarf Mallow & Common Cudweed

 

When I eventually reached Wensum Park where I started to follow the Marriot's Way trail, the river looked picturesque. Lilly pads broke up the reflections of the surface. The water was crystal clear and you could see the bottom and the aquatic plants swaying in the current. Watercress clinged to the river sides with small white circles of flowers showing above their lush green leaves. Banded demoiselles fluttered above these plants in large numbers as if dancing a graceful ballet full of electric blue jewelled bodies with black patched wings doing semaphore-like movements in the air. There was even a Norfolk hawker patrolling part of this river, an insect that was once restricted to the Broadlands region. 

 

I followed the river on its journey under a busy road bridge and to a pumphouse. Once it flowed through this pumphouse, the river became more urbanised, seeming empty with plant life. The stretch of river before the pumphouse though had perhaps the best selection of plants on this city river.

 



Arrowhead, River Water-dropwort & Flowering Rush

Three special plants to note were found here between the road bridge and the pumphouse. The distinctive arrow-shaped leaves of arrowhead were everywhere here and I was pleased that some of them had spikes of white blooms with a blush of pink in the centres that I could easily see popular in someone's garden. Small cow parsley-like plants poking out the middle of the river turn out to be river water-dropwort, a scarce aquatic plant. And lastly, three or four pink bloomed heads of flowering rush could only be seen from one spot along this river. All three of these plants tell you that this river is healthy despite all the traffic polluting nearby and the occasional plastic bottle stuck within the vegetation while fighting the river flow.

 

July 5th  Catton Park and Waterloo Park

 

With success finding all the plants that were listed to me, I was given another list, a much larger list. The locations were a little bit varied too, ranging from nearby to being in another part of Norwich. So today I focused on the ones that were in two of my local parks. First up was Catton Park where I was told I could find fig-leaved goosefoot, flixweed and sand spurrey somewhere in the fenced off picnic area. I wasn't really familiar with any of these plants, so it was no wonder that I couldn't find any of them.

 

Hare's-foot Clover

I had more success at Waterloo Park where I not only found many really large great mulleins, but I also found a plant that was on my list at a different location. Along the sides of the disused bowling green and beneath the towering spikes of the mulleins were clumps of hare's-foot clover. The flowers were smaller than what I imagined and supposedly resemble the foot of a rabbit. I'm not too sure of this but I can't deny that they have this fluffy, cute kind of charm about them. For me, this is another one of those to add to my "I never knew that was in my neighbourhood" list that was growing day by day.

July 1st Whitlingham Broad

I was back at Whitlingham Broad today. I was dropped off at the far end of the road. My aim was to walk back to the top to where the barn café and car park is and to look for plants along the way. There was a hint of rain in the air, but it didn't lead to anything but a minor drizzle. A few hoary mullein stood tall like miniature trees with branches full of yellow flowers by the far car park at the start of my walk. As I continued, these were replaced by the even taller purple flowered stands of rosebay willowherbs and, later still, purple loosestrifes.

 

Crab Spider with hoverfly on a Pyramidal Orchid

The landscape of my walk changed from river and roadside to meadows and woodland to the broad itself. Behind one fenced off area during my journey was a small meadow. Within it, I could see the bright colours of purple and pink dotted within the long grass. They were so bright that you'd have to be blind not to miss them. These were the unmistakable flowers of pyramidal orchids, my 4th orchid species I've found in Norwich so far during lockdown (bee, southern marsh and common spotted were the others). These colourful orchids filled this mini patch of meadow like stars in the sky. Amazingly, despite being a little bit of a distance from the fence, I noticed that one of these pyramidal orchids had a bright white spot on it. Using my binoculars (and my camera), I could see that it was a crab spider. And what's more remarkable and despite standing out like a sore thumb was that this ambush predator had managed to catch a hoverfly!

 

It wasn't all orchids to be found in this small patch of meadow. Growing by the fence were a few new species for my list such as lady's bedstraw, agrimony and Perforate St John's-wort. I also found quite a few burdocks, but they were just a possible few days away from flowering.

 

Amphibious Bistort

Exploring the edge of the broad, there were a few great spots where I kept discovering some flower or another that were only just in bloom. Hemp agrimony (not even related to the agrimony earlier, which was yellow and not fluffy and pink like this species), lesser water parsnip (according to my app), celery-leaved buttercups, musk thistles, purple loosestrifes, meadowsweet and redshank (which I recognised from the black splodged leaves, but was seeing the small pink rods of flowers for the first time) were just some of the things that were displaying well by or near the water's edge. I also found a 'raft' of amphibious bistort floating above the surface of the broad and a few distinctive arrow-shaped leaves of arrowhead that weren't even close to blooming yet.

The Plants Of Summer

 June 14th  Norwich & Whitlingham Broad

On Sunday afternoon last week, I decided to go for a walk along the River Wensum from Wensum Park to the centre of the city before meeting my parents who were going to pick me up so that we could visit Whitlingham Broad. My lockdown city plant list grows every week. I discover something new with every visit I've made at any location and this walk along the river was no different. Some, like buddleia, were as expected to be found in an urban environment, but there are many other things I didn't even know were found within Norwich. I wonder how many people even took any notice that there's biting stonecrop, hedge woundwort or even watercress growing along the built up, concrete banks of this part of the river?

 

Biting Stonecrop

 When I eventually got to Whitlingham, I had just enough energy to walk round the broad. There weren't too many new plants for my list, but I did find my first purple loosestrife of the year as well as musk thistle. The birdlife was pretty decent too with common terns, great crested grebes and so many mute swans to count and we also had an encounter with a tiny froglet hopping across the main path that must have seemed like crossing a couple of miles to this minute amphibian.

 

June 18th  Catton Park

 

After a morning of torrential rain, it was a surprise that the afternoon on Thursday was completely opposite. The sun had came out and I felt I couldn't waste the opportunity to not go outside. My local park beckoned me and I wondered what changes in its plant life was I to find this time. The bird's-foot trefoil, buttercups and cat's-tail were trying hard to make sure that the colour yellow was to dominate the park's fields if it wasn't for the tall seed heads of various grass species partly obscuring them. Small patches of purple were now trying to peek through the vegetation in the form of knapweed and rosebay willowherb, while giant stands of hemlock tower above everything except the trees. I also discovered field pansy and what I believe to be black nightshade growing around the edge of log that is used as a border for a path.

 

Cerceris rybyensis wasp on thistle

 

June 20th  Cary's Meadow & Thorpe Marshes

 

Dad took me out to Cary's Meadow, a small site managed by the Broads Authority on the edge of Norwich. If there was one place I knew for certain that could provide me with more orchids for my city plant list, it was here. I haven't been here for years after my last visit ended with disappointment with a landscape that was way too heavily overgrazed by cattle. I wanted to give this place another go though. Could I find orchids this time or will the cattle beat me to them? Well, thankfully not this time. No cattle in sight and after some searching, I hit the jackpot. Not only did I find several bee orchids (including some that were lighter variations), there were also a few common spotted orchids and a southern marsh orchid, too. As well as orchids, I also chalked up scarlet pimpernel, selfheal and a few other odds and ends too.

Common Spotted Orchid

Southern Marsh Orchid

Bee Orchid

 

Returning to the car, Dad then dropped me off to Thorpe Marshes, just a stones throw away from Cary's Meadow. My plant list was a side project at this point as I was here for birds. This place seems to be attracting a bit of attention amongst local twitchers just recently. First it was the corncrake (which I've heard twice on my previous last two visits) and now there was another scarce and equally secretive migrant paying this reserve a visit. A Savi's warbler has been heard singing throughout the week and occasionally poses for people to see. This is another one of your typical little brown jobs, but has a powerful voice. It sounds similar to a grasshopper warbler, which is described as a reeling fishing reel, but it is far more louder. If I could at least hear it, I'd be happy.

I only had two hours before I had to meet up with Dad, so I spent most of it waiting around staring at the bramble bush that I've been told that it spends most of its time in. Apparently, I learnt that this bird wasn't as active during the day that much, preferring to sing mostly at dawn and dusk. However, it did show well at midday yesterday, so I still had some chance. At least that was what I thought at the time of waiting. In the end it was a no show. I didn't even hear it sing once. The bramble bush attracted sedge warblers, linnets, reed buntings and even a kestrel hovering above it, but no Savi's.

 

On the plant side of things, I had more success. Marsh bedstraw, marsh valerian, common vetchling, meadowsweet and the leaves of what my app is telling me is of a plant called redshank.

 

June 23rd  Catton Park to Mousehold Heath

 

I went back to Catton Park to get a better photo of the black nightshade I found the other day. I had never heard of it before and thanks to my app, it has helped me discover something I never knew existed in my local patch. The plant is so small with dainty white flowers and is quite beautiful. It makes me wonder if anyone has ever noticed it before.

Black Nightshade

Catton Park was just a brief stop on my tour of my local area. My main destination I had in mind was Mousehold. There's a bit of a distance between the park and the heath, but walking to Mousehold made me discover even more plants to my list. Field scabious, reflexed stonecrop, large-flowered evening primrose, hoary mullein and goat's-beard. In fact, when I was at Mousehold, I didn't find too many more new things in comparison, just bell heather and a couple of new tree species. On the way home, I was really hot and tired at this point, but I still managed to locate great willowherb before I could finally put my feet up from a very long morning's walk.