Better than PG Tips .....

....Kingfishers at breakfast time. Walking to work alongside the river Wensum this morning a Kingfisher whizzed passed in a flash of electic blue and further along a second (?) was perched up. A delightful start to the morning, and in contrast too the chaos that i've read about and very nearly joined at the Pallas Grasshopper warbler twitch earlier in the week. (I only stayed at home because my wife had the car and dropping her at work would have been to convaluted). The simple things are often under valued, I also noticed more birds calling as the mornings have gotten darker the birds are no longer singing while I sleep.

For the record I don't like PG Tips, Yorkshire Tea for me!

Blickling Bimble

During a family orientated long weekend away in Essex we did little nature spotting, despite the fact we got lucky and avoided most of the rain so on Tuesday Laura, Agnes and myself with the sun shining decided to go for a walk around Blickling.

Leaving the car park we decided to walk the Monument Loop, rather than usual Lake route,we soon saw a few Hornets among the ivy on a hedge and quite a few butterflies where making the most of the sun, Red Admiral, Large White, Comma and Speckled Wood all close by.

Bird and wildlife was very limited but Agnes spotted a decorated stone, part of the summer craze 'Norfolk Rocks' (where children and adults decorated, hid and hunted and re-hid stones, a great idea getting children out doors and creative) anyway we spent the rest of our walk eyes peeled and found 20/30 moving a few and keeping one as a souvenir. Agnes was so excited by finding a colourful stone!

It wasnt just decorative stones we spotted, surprisingly by the Monument, away from the Lake lots of recently emerged darter dragonflies flew around, and Agnes found a Small Emerald Moth in the grass, i new species for my list. Also a sure sign that summer has given way to Autumn was the emergence of quite a bit of fungus. The most striking being this Parasol sp.

The Essex trip wasn't devoid of wildlife, we saw Elephants, Giraffes and Rhinos but that was at Colchester Zoo! Native species wise, we did see a large shoal of Mullet from Southend Pier, they followed the in coming tide over the mudflats hoovering up anything that decided to craw out of the mud, in water hardly deep enough for them to swim. A few dragonflies at Wat Tyler Country Park and bats flying around at dusk in South Benfleet the other highlights.

Bank Holiday Bees

Last Monday I finally managed to catch up with James for our regular school holiday catch up. Being a bit early for migration James had identified a couple of specialist bees for us to find in North Norfolk.

Before heading out we looked through the few moths I'd trapped over night and I asked James to look at a few insects I was curious about and might interest him. The highlight of the moths a new species for both me and James was a Scarce Bordered Straw, a migrant to Norfolk. James also identified a few leaf miners for me a new interest for him and something completely different for me.

First stop was Weybourne where we soon located the large colony of Heather Bees (Colletes succinctus) nesting in the cliff. Apparently they commute the couple of miles inland too feed on Kelling Heath. A few Wolf bees and Darter dragonflies also held our attention before James also found the cuckoo bee Red-thighed Epeolus (Epeolus cruciger). Walking West to the radar station we failed too find much else of interest but a lone female Wheatear shows that Autumn migration isn't far away.

Onward to Morston where we hoped to see Sea Aster Bees (Colletes halophilus) a specialist bee of salt marshes. We couldn't see the fields of purple on the Saltmarsh has most sea aster had died off but luckily James noted a yellow abarent form which held our target species. Walking as far as Stiffkey Fen was rewarded by a group of 37 Spoonbill and lots of waders however without scopes and looking into the sun we could identify anything unusual.

Before we joined the sausage roll queue I popped into the public loos. Luckily they were quiet as on leaving I spotted a Frosted Orange moth near the door and looking around spotted numerous moths, that then needed photographing on the ceiling. These included 3 new moths for me, Chinese Character, Pale Eggar and Rosy Rustic.

Dropping me off at home i spotted a rather spectacular Sycamore Moth caterpillar in the hedge and Angle Shades moth. James also identified the parasitic wasp Cotesia glomerata.