Blue Eyed Birder: Lowestoft Life - 10th

With the aurora looking set to be amazing in the night of the 10^th, we poodled out after dark and found a grand view to the west of Haddiscoe. The rain had stopped and the clouds were breaking and I had hopes but as usual for me, nothing was happening but I stood there in the dark, listening to the sounds of distant Tawny Owls and Song Thrushes and even a Moorhen calling overhead but no glorious glowing.

A Chinese Water Deer starting barking from the field closest to me. A terrifying screaming that is genuinely heart stopping when it suddenly starts up! I gave up too early once again and headed for home frustrated by the messages from on my doorstep about ‘a lovely glow’. There was a hint of colour but nothing special.

Got home, pulled up, got out and there was a huge block of red hanging in the sky back towards Carlton! Arrrggghhh! Back in the car and down to Carlton which was heaving and in a fit of peak (again) I left and came hoe and went to bed and missed the main show in the wee small hours. Never mind. At least I saw the colour with my naked eye and unfortunately, I think there will be other chances down south in the coming years.

More garden time on the 13^th produced a few Hoverflies with Eristalis tenax, Eupeodes corollae and Episyrphus balteatus and a single Red Admiral. It was unseasonably warm and the following afternoon Antony and I headed to Gisleham in the afternoon for a bit of impromptu leaf mine hunting around the church and its lanes and we found 32 species of moth mine wiggling, blotching and folding there way through various leaves.

Stigmella tityrella on Beech

There were Hoverflies here too on to the still flowering Ivy with Xylota segnis being the pick of the bunch. The were some late Ivy Bees and lots of Common Wasps as well as a few Bumblebees and we found a couple of smart Hawthorn and a single Green Shieldbug. A Speckled Wood was the only Butterfly and it was good to find a Zig-Zig Elm Sawfly. There were even some birds with Yellowhammer and Skylark over and Goldcrests in the Yews.

Zig-Zig Elm Sawfly

Grey Shoulder Knot

Tawny Speckled Pug cat on Yarrow

The night of the 14^th saw a good chance to see Comet A3 Tsuchinshan Atlas and amazingly it was visible blazing across the low western sky from my garden with huge tail attached to a twinkling ball of light 44 million miles away. With another 80,000 years to wait for its next visit it was good to take the opportunity!

The following night was warm but the cloud was low and there was no chance of comet watching but it did mean that there was a constant stream of Redwings invisibly heading south. It also should have mean some good mothing but it was very poor with juts four species although one was a smart Beaded Chestnut.

Beaded Chestnut

The next morning I was enthusiastically down at Pakefield Beach in the hope of seeing some evidence of last night’s movement but other than a few ticking Robins and a couple of Song Thrush, it was very quiet and the only birds moving overhead were the odd Meadow Pipit, Skylark and a single Rock Pipit.

The Cetti’s Warbler was surprisingly still half singing in the base of the Elms below me and a Chiffchaff was calling in there too. It was windy with an easterly into my face and the sea was rough but I stuck it out for 45 minutes and counted 202 Dark-bellied Brent Geese, five Shelduck, a few dabblers and four Grey Heron low and south along with a flock of Dunlin and three Curlew while a Sooty Shearwater swung north way off shore. There were no Gannets.

From here I checked Kirkley Cemetery in the hope of finding and eastern waif but alas it was deathly with almost no birds whatsoever – not even a Blackbird! I amused myself with some leaf mining (as you do) and had a close encounter with a pair of distracted Foxes whose game of chase took them straight at me without realising. The dog had an amazingly bushy tail.

The local Buzzards paid a couple of low visits over the garden and the Herring Gulls alerted me as usual but equally they are never fussed by their Larid chaperones. A Chiffchaff called from the Birch and a few Meadow Pipits bumbled over.

Buzzard

Another attempt at the Comet at Carlton Marshes after dark did give a view but it was poor when compared Monday but the Moon was equally distracting behind us creating amazing moonlight shadows.

Comet A3 Tsuchinshan Atlas

The trap went on again that night and was slightly more productive with eight species with a pale flavascens Sallow, three inky Black Rustics, Gem, three Rusty Dot Pearls, a Delicate, Caloptilia rufipennella, 21 LBAMs, two Large Yellow Underwing and a single Diamond-back. It was so warm that both the Toads and Frogs were out actively feeding.

flavascens Sallow

Caloptilia rufipennella (AW)

Gem

Rusty Dot Pearl

More garden time and walk to the shops and even that was worth the leg work with a front garden nearby have a wondrous display of Fly Agarics looking slightly incongruous in the neat grass!

Fly Agarics

Fly Agaric

This morning we pottered down to Southwold for a wander round the town post-tourist season. It was so quiet with no background noise at all and even in town you could hear Robins and Wrens in the courtyards and gardens and Skylarks and both Pied and Grey Wagtails flying over in the cloudless blue. A search in the Elms and Sycamores along Gardner Road gave me a Goldcrest and a couple of Tits but no sprites or funny Robins but I am trying!

Burdock - squeeze the heads & if hard then the grub of the
moth Metznaria lappella will be inside

Back home for some more selective grass cutting by hand and then out to Metzenaria lappellaBeach simply because I have to keep believing that there is something out there for me to find! Strangely enough I found nowt bar a single Med Gull and flock of House Sparrows.

'My' Elm copse on the beach - one Robin

Herring Gull

Black-headed Gull

House Sparrow

The Ivy at one spot was still flowering strongly and was humming with Wasps, Ivy Bees and Hoverflies. It was still so warm at nearly 20c so I may try the moth trap again tonight.