April 24th Mousehold Heath

Thanks to this lockdown, wildlife watching has been restricted to my local park. Catton Park is a nice place, don't get me wrong, but I felt like going somewhere different. So today, I took my 'within walking distance' walk to the limit. That is, I went to Mousehold this afternoon. Ok, it is not that far away, but it is still much further to walk to than Catton Park, which is just a few minutes to get to. Mousehold is just a tad longer, but I'm not complaining.

It is a nice day for a visit with the sun out and there's not a single cloud in the sky. Annoyingly though, despite the lockdown restrictions in effect, it seems that many families are here treating today like a summer holiday at the beach with them lounging around the Vinegar Pond with buckets and spades! I'm here for my daily exercise like the government requested and they are lazing around, allowing their kids to play around the pond. Some people!

Green Hairstreak

Anyway, I was on a bit of a mission. I wanted to find a couple of Mousehold specialties; green hairstreak butterflies and green tiger beetles. I was told via email from Will the Mousehold warden that the first green hairstreak was seen recently. They can be pretty tricky to spot at times as their green wings blend in with the green of the gorse leaves. Of course, the gorse flowers themselves are bright yellow and the heath looks fantastic at the moment, glowing brightly as the sun in their beauty. These flowers are what the butterflies in question love the most and the best place to search. A short search around the bushes was all it took until I found one. And it was rather obliging as I got extremely close to it without it flying away.

These small butterflies emerge around May, so this was one of the early ones. They also rarely perch with their wings open, not that you are missing much anyway. The green underside is more attractive than their boring brown upper side in my opinion. When they perch on a gorse flower to feed on the sweet nectar, they usually point one side of their closed wings upwards in the direction of the sun like a green solar panel. Only hairstreaks seem to do this, other butterflies open their wings in order to sun themselves to absorb the warmth to power their cold-blooded bodies. A strange observation I've heard is that hairstreaks rarely switch sides and, like someone who is either right handed or left handed, the same goes to these butterflies on which side they'd use. If this is true or not, I'm not sure but I bet every amateur butterfly fanatic will be studying their hairstreaks much closely to which side of their wings is facing the sun from now on.

Green Tiger Beetles mating

Not long after seeing my hairstreak fly off, I was quickly on the hunt for green tiger beetles in the bare surrounding ground. A sand wasp caught my attention at first, but then I noticed something fly upwards a few metres from my feet. In just a few minutes after my green hairstreak encounter, here was my green tiger beetle. And it wasn't the only one. I found a good few more. They may be very small, but what they lack in size they sure make up for it in being one of the most fearsome and most attractive insects on the heath. Tiger beetles are one of the fastest beetles in the UK and pounce on their prey with lightning quick speed and devouring them even quicker still within their menacing jaws. A real gem of an insect that many people walking the heath wouldn't even know was just beneath their feet.



Also seen at Mousehold today were willow warblers, holly blue butterflies, large whites, peacock butterflies and a very quick glimpse of a lizard before it darted beneath the undergrowth as soon as I saw it. There were also hundreds of tadpoles in the Vinegar Pond, which the children were trying to catch.

Willow Warbler

A caterpillar I found on a gorse flower

April 21st Catton Park

Bluebells

With lockdown in continuation, I haven't really been doing too much other than staying home and play videogames and heading out to work for the odd shift. So today, as it was a really nice day, I went out to meet up with Mum for a walk around my local park again. A lot has changed since the last time I was here at the start of the month. Bluebells are now in bloom, leaves are now covering the trees, more butterflies are on the wing and the birds are singing in the trees. Together, along with the warm sunshine, there's a sense of peace and happiness. Walking around the park, I could forget about the pandemic and lose myself in the sights, sounds and colours of nature.

Holly Blue

Blackcap

Large Red Damselfly

While I was at the park, I managed to spot a large red damselfly, the first member of the dragonfly family to usually emerge in the UK. It is a fairly common, though often overlooked species, but in these days of isolation, I get to really appreciate its beauty more than I had before. It is the same with a lovely purple flower called honesty. The flowers are really magnificent when you take a closer look. A walk like this really makes you open up your senses to the natural world in times like these. I am just glad the British government is allowing parks to stay open. This is really one of the few places I can still go to right now. I wouldn't know what I'd do if the gates were to close on my local parks.

Honesty

April 1st Catton Park

Cowslip

It has been 2 weeks since I was last at Strumpshaw. With Covid-19 still causing a major threat to life, I have been keeping myself mostly in isolation at home. From time to time, as a 'key worker', I have travelled to work at the Royal Mail sorting depot at Thorpe Road on foot. Walking through the streets of Norwich has been like a ghost town lately. Nearly every business have closed their doors with the same notice message hung in their windows stating the obvious reason why and there are few people around. In some places, public benches have been blocked up and public toilets have been closed.

While the NHS are on the frontline, I have been working with the Royal Mail in the background trying to keep the small businesses, who are forced to work at home, afloat as well as sending valuable medication off to where they needed to go across the country. It has been a rather stressful time with everyone having to work 2 metres away from everyone else and the fact that the amount of mail coming in has doubled than usual, I have been struggling trying to sort it all before the deadline. It has been overwhelming at times. But I do feel a sense of pride that I'm doing my bit to keep this country going during this difficult time.

Dog Violet (I think)

Away from work, I am doing what most people are and should be doing, staying indoors. By isolating ourselves, we can reduce the spread of this virus. However, staying indoors all day every day is not healthy. Covid-19 is one thing, mental health is another problem we have to also keep under control. For that, I went for a walk around one of my local parks. I met up with Mum, keeping our distance the whole time as went to see what we could find. I pointed out a few birds to her that were singing, including chiffchaffs and a blackcap, which have recently returned back from migration. There were also a few plants in flower, such as cowslip, violets and red dead-nettles, adding a splash of colour on this dull, overcast day. Remember, as long as its within walking distance and that you keep your distance from other people, there is no reason why you can't still go outside to connect with nature. Nature is the greatest medicine after all.