Catching Up: Pre-Easter Break in North Norfolk

We spent a wonderful few days in North Norfolk just before Easter. The two Wordles above show some of the wildlife we saw. I wish I could improve my wader ID skills! The weather was mixed: it was fairly dry apart from the Sunday, but pretty chilly.

We spent some time inland, visiting the Broads, and quite a bit of time on the coast. The photo above shows us approaching St Benet's Abbey on a boat from South Walsham Inner Broad.

Men were hard at work harvesting reeds. 

Yes, it was pretty chilly on the water!

We visited Ranworth Broad where you can see Swallowtails a bit later on in the year. The one above was part of a kneeler in St Helen's Church - and the one below was part of a misericord. 

I particularly liked the misericord of St Benet's...

There is a lovely boardwalk through a stretch of Alder carr...

... and reedbeds ...

... to this floating Visitor Centre run by Norfolk Wildlife Trust. The family ahead of us saw an Otter as they approached the building: we looked but weren't so lucky. However it was wonderful to watch the Great Crested Grebes performing their courtship dances ...

 

I will add a few photos of our coastal adventures in another post, but since it wasn't Swallowtail season, here is a Peacock butterfly we saw in Ranworth ...

Minsmere and our first Cuckoo of the season

We spent Bank Holiday Monday afternoon at RSPB Minsmere, under brooding skies. The photo above shows the scene looking up to the coastguard cottages on Dunwich Heath.

All of a sudden we heard the unmistakable call of the Cuckoo, our first Cuckoo of 2019. What a thrill!

Strangely, it was also the day on which I found my first Cuckoo Flower.



It was lovely to find some sand on the beach...

 

... and I was surprised that there were so few other people about.

There were still Bluebells in the woods.

This plump Chaffinch eyed us up as we sat out, drinking cups of tea. 

All of a sudden he flew off in a flutter of feathers. It was time to see what was about on Island Mere.

There were some large does skirting the woodland path...

... and a small Muntjac, munching away, seemingly unperturbed by our presence. 

We passed small clumps of this tiny pink flower. Is it a kind of Cranesbill, I wonder? (Update... no, it is a Common Storksbill: please see Comments). I have a hunch it likes sandy soils as we have also seen it as NT Sutton Hoo.

This beautiful iridescent Long-horn (moth) was making its way along a stinging nettle, which it shared...

...with this weevil.

There were 'chittering' sounds as we walked up the ramp to the Island Mere hide, but I didn't see any Bearded tits or Reed buntings. We did, however, spot two Marsh Harriers in the distance.



The mere was a swarm of activity: the Cormorant seemed to be watching very hungry migrants (?Swifts) who had recently arrived in vast numbers.

We retraced our steps along the Adder Trail...

...where there were quite a few rabbits (and no snakes in sight - probably too cold for them!).

I don't suppose the Bluebells will still be there on our next visit, but they have been a joy to see.

An Orange-tip, a Dragon and Bluebells at Sutton Hoo

This is just a quick post: I couldn't resist adding the Orange-tip photograph. Doesn't the butterfly look stunning on the Bluebell?

Orange and blue are complementary colours, on opposite sides of the colour wheel, so where does camouflage come in? Obviously it doesn't, but I wonder why...

I am sure the dragon had more to do with the Sutton Hoo Anglo-Saxons than with St George, but there it was waiting for us to find in the wood on 23 April! 

Home Patch List of Species Update

Recent sighting: species of Nomada

I have got behind with my home patch list of species encountered... so here's an overdue update. I am particularly hoping that our dedicated wildlife patch will increase the biodiversity this year.

Dates with a green background were first sightings in 2017.
Dates with an orange background were first sightings in 2018.
Dates with a blue background are 2019 discoveries. 

The list began with Lucy Corrander's Tree Following meme in mind. I am continuing it for my own interest, and have decided from now on to omit unidentified creatures (though I may post photos from time to time). There have, for example, been plenty of unidentified moths over the last two or three years. I am trying to post more on iSpot these days in order to get more accurate IDs. I will probably switch to alphabetical order in due course, but my main aim for now is to get the species noted. I hope to fill in more details soon. 

Avian sightings - unlike the Big Garden Birdwatch, a bird seen clearly from the house or garden counts for my purposes. We have, for example, yet to see a Grey Heron landing in our home patch, but we have had several good sightings of these birds flying over in the direction of the local nature reserve, one road away, and perching on a neighbour's roof. We have often heard the local Tawny Owl, but I am not counting 'birds heard' (unless they are also seen) at present. [R] indicates a regular visitor, and as such, I will not usually include updates. 

• HPb1   Great Spotted Woodpecker
• HPb2   Great tit [R]
• HPb3   Long-tailed Tit [R]
• HPb4   Blackbird [R]
• HPb5   Song Thrush  [27 April 2019 - a pair] 
• HPb6   Blue tit [R]
• HPb7   Robin  [R]
• HPb8   Magpie [R]
• HPb9   Wood Pigeon  [R]
• HPb10 Dunnock [R]
• HPb11 Starling [R]
• HPb12 Carrion Crow [R]
• HPb13 Goldfinch  [R]
• HPb14 Jay 
• HPb15 Green Woodpecker
• HPb16 Wren 
• HPb17 Bullfinch [[19 January 2017] 
• HPb18 Sparrowhawk
• HPb19 Mallard
• HPb20 House Sparrow 
• HPb21 Chaffinch
• HPb22 Grey Heron 
• HPb23 Collared Dove [R]
• HPb24 Coal tit
• HPb25 Redwing [[20 January 2017] 
• HPb26 Kestrel  [[8 June 2017] 

Mammal sightings

• HPm1 (?Wood) Mouse
• HPm2 Bat ... [first 2015 garden sighting 7 May 2015] [Apr/May 2015]  [[22 Jan 2017]  [Aug 2018]
• HPm3 Shrew 
• HPm4 Grey Squirrel [R]
• HPm5 Stoat
• HPm6 Hedgehog  [9 Aug 2018]

Insect sightings

• HPi1 Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly [March 2014] [[27 February 2017] 
• HPi2 Buff-tailed Bumblebee [March 2014] [Jan/Feb 2016] [Mar/Apr 2016] [2017]
• HPi3 Brimstone Butterfly [April 2014]
• HPi4 7-spot Ladybird [April 2014] [Oct 2014] [Apr/May 2015] [Jul/Aug 2015] [Sept/Oct 2015] [Mar/Apr 2016]
• HPi5 Skipper Butterfly [July 2014]
• HPi6 Meadow Brown Butterfly [July 2014] [Jul/Aug 2015]
• HPi7 Large White Butterfly [July 2014] [Jul/Aug 2016]
• HPi8 14-spot Yellow Ladybirds [July 2014]
• HPi9 Small White Butterfly [May 2014] [Apr/May 2015] [Sept/Oct 2015 - larvae] [2 May 2019]
• HPi10 Orange tip Butterfly [May 2014]
• HPi11 Harlequin ladybird  [May 2014] [October 2014] [Sept/Oct 2015] [1 April 2019, N.B. spotless]
• HPi12 Garden Chafer (Phyllopertha horticola) [June 2014] [June/July 2016] [18 May 2018]
• HPi13 Ruby-tail Wasp [June 2014] [May/June 2015] [May/June 2016] [[21 May 2017] 
• HPi14 Blackfly [June 2014] 
• HPi15 Marmalade Hoverfly [July 2014] [Jul/Aug 2015] [Jul/Aug 2016]
• HPi16 Shield bug [July 2014] [Apr/May 2015]
• HPi17 Migrant Hawker dragonflies [July 2014]
• HPi18 Gatekeeper Butterfly [Jul/Aug 2016]
• HPi19 Comma butterfly [August 2014] [June/July 2016] [2017]
• HPi20 Red Admiral butterfly [August 2014] [October 2014] [Jul/Aug 2015]
• HPi21 Peacock butterfly [August 2014] [Jul/Aug 2015] [Nov/Dec 2015] 
• HPi22 Green bottle flies [August 2014] [May/June 2015]
• HPi23 Ants [R]
• HPi24 Squashbug aka Dock Bug, (Coreus marginatus ) [August 2014] [May 2018, mating]
• HPi25 Birch Shieldbug (late instar?) [September 2014]
• HPi26 Lacewing [October 2014] [Sept/Oct 2015]
• HPi27 Cereal Leaf Beetle [Apr/May 2015]
• HPi28 Painted Lady [2018]
• HPi29 Rosemary Beetle [[Sept/Oct 2015] [May/June 2016 - four] [May 2017]
• HPi30 Hawthorn Shieldbug [May/June 2015] 
• HPi31 Forest Shieldbug (Pentatoma rufipes) [Sept/Oct 2015] 
• HPi32 Early Bumblebee [Mar/Apr 2016] 
• HPi33 Species of Miridae [Mar/Apr 2016]  
• HPi34 Cranefly [May/June 2016] 
• HPi35 Crossocerus, wasps family Crabronidae [May/June 2016] 
• HPi36 Wasp Beetle (Clytus arietis) [May/June 2016]
• HPi37 Tree Bumblebee (Bombus (Pyrobombus) hypnorum) [May/June 2016] 
• HPi38 Moth Least Black Arches (Nola confusalis) [May/June 2016] 
• HPi39 Holly Blue Butterfly  [[26 May 2017]  [27 April 2019] 
• HPi40 Dark Bush Cricket (nymph) [[18 May 2017]  
• HPi41 Common Cockchafer  [[18 May 2017]  
• HPi42 Scorpion Fly [May2017] [[23 May 2017]  
• HPi43 Soldier Beetle (Cantharis rustica)  [2017] [[23 May 2017]    [13 May 2018]
• HPi44 Cabbage Bug (Eurydema (Eurydema) oleracea)  [2017]  [[9 June 2017]  
• HPi45 Light Brown Apple moth (Epiphyas postvittana) [2017] [[23 May 2017] 
• HPi46 Large Red damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula)   [9 May 2018] 
• HPi47  Common Blue butterfly (Polyommatus icarus)   [11 May 2018] 
• HPi48  Speckled Wood butterfly (Pararge aegeria)   [15 May 2018] 
• HPi49  Ruby Tiger moth (Phragmatobia fuliginosa)   [18 May 2018] 
• HPi50  Mint Moth (Pyrausta aurata)   [24 May 2018] 
• HPi51  Mullein Moth larva (Cucullia verbasci)   [14 June 2018] 
• HPi52  Silver Y moth (two)   [August 2018]
• HPi53  Rove Beetle (Platydracus stercorarius)   [September 2018] 
• HPi54 Species of Nomada [27 April 2019, iSpot ID] 
• HPi55 Fire beetle nymph [17 April 2019] 
• HPi56 Pine Ladybird [1 April 2019] 

Molluscs

• HPm1 Brown Lipped Snail (Cepaea (Cepaea) nemoralis) [May/June 2016]
• HPm2 Field Slug (Deroceras) [May/June 2016] 

Arachnids

• HPa1 Zebra Spider [Apr/May 2015] [May/June 2015] [Mar/Apr 2016] [May 2018]
• HPa2 Garden Spider (Araneus diadematus) [May/June 2015] [27 April 2019]