Lowestoft Life - 1st-7th August 2025

The 1^st August was another grey day – not that it has been cold and I had a quick half hour down at the North Denes Net Posts searching for insects.  There were plenty of Field and Meadow Grasshoppers in the swathes of Yarrow, Dittander and Sea Radish that abounds here. 

Field Grasshopper

Meadow Grasshopper

Field Grasshopper 

I found a couple of Long-winged Coneheads including a strangely coloured bronzy buff one.  There were not many Butterflies around and no early chats on the posts but I did snap a couple of micro moths.

Aethes smeathmanniana

Dichroampha vancouverana

Long-winged Conehead

Wild Radish

Dittander

Field Bindweed

Fat Hen

A quick look at the sea produced no terns at all but a constant stream of Kittiwakes going both ways and a few gulls loafing on the groynes.  One tiny juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gulls caught my eye for not only being very small but also being incredibly slim and attenuated.

I know that there is a lot of size variation but I have bever seen one quite like this and I pondered as to whether it could have been a juvenile Baltic (L fuscus fuscus) especially as there have already been juvenile Caspians along this stretch of the coast already?  Enquiries on line suggested that there is no way currently to separate the races of juveniles.

juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gull mmm...

Mothing in the garden was very poor with a Red Underwing being the best although it escaped my clutches!  Antony had better luck and added a few more to my list including Small Rivulet and Citron Plume from his garden and Oblique Striped that he had reared out from eggs.

Flame Shoulder

A very pale Turnip

Citron Plume

Lathronympha strigana 

Oblique Striped

Small Rivulet

The 6^th August saw me on Wren Chicken duty where a Volucella inanis was my first of the year and reminded me that I had see a Volucella zonaria in my own garden on the 2^nd.  I then took myself down to Walberswick for the short walk down to the spot where the Zitting Cisticola had been bouncing around for a few days.

I have a very pragmatic take on some birds.  Zitters are one of those.  They zit, the bounce, they occasionally land in view, the bounce again, they zit again – and repeat but I do like them and so ambled down to the spot.  I stopped 50m short of the group of birders who where looking the other way and promptly heard it singing alongside me much to the delight of the Herts birder I had walked down with. 

Zitting Cisticola - Chris Darby

A couple of minutes later it started again and we watched it for a couple of minutes doing its thing before landing beyond the stream bund.  Seven minutes had elapsed and as I could not envisage that I would gain anything more and so turned round and spent a lovely time walking back and looking at the fine display of littoral flora.  There were a few Butterflies but no Whites landed close enough for further scrutiny but I was pleased to see my first Lesser Marsh Grasshopper for some time. A lone Whimbrel was with Redshank on the pools and Common Terns and a couple of Sandwich Terns moved north off shore. 

Sea Pea

Yellow Horned Poppy

Sea Spurge

Sea Holly

Sea Cabbage

Bladder Campion

Restharrow

Bird's Foot Trefoil

Whimbrel

Lesser Marsh Grasshopper

From here I headed to Wangford Quarry but most of the quarry edge flora was mostly over with Small Flowered Evening Primrose, Great Mullein and Viper’s Bugloss still putting out some colour.  There were very few Butterflies but I was very pleased to find a single Grayling.  I think this is the first I have seen inland around here.

Viper's Bugloss

Small Flowered Evening Primrose

Great Mullein

Gatekeeper

Grayling

Up above a family of Buzzards were cruising around with the three youngsters whistling (three notes) to get their parents attention.  I have never heard such distinctive calls from young birds before.   A flock of 30 Swifts and a similar number of House Martins drifted south and a Lesser Whitethroat was tacking in the hedge.

Buzzard

Pyrausta despicata

Field Grasshopper

I came back on the inside track where 30 Migrant and two Southern Hawkers were hunting and two Oak Eggar moths zoomed up and down.  I found several Phyllonorycter corylifoliella on the Hawthorn.

Migrant Hawker

Southern Hawker

Phyllonorycter corylifoliella 

Back home for lunch and then out again!  A walk around North Cove was pleasant but quiet but there were clouds of Migrant Hawkers and Common Darters and odd ones of three other big Dragons.  It was good to find my first Willow Emeralds of the year with seven seen on my circuit but the Hemp Agrimony was worryingly quiet for insect life with just a few Helophilus Hovers and a singlet Tachina fera.

Migrant Hawker

Common Darter

Common Darter

Common Darter

Common Darter on Guelder Rose

Willow Emerald

Willow Emerald

Willow Emerald

Willow Emerald

Hemp Agrimony

Helophilus pendulus

Water Mint

Yellow Loosestrife

Alder Buckthorn

Comma

A Muntjac flashed her white undertail as she bounced away and I heard several raptor broods throughout the woods before calling it a day.

Another poor night for mothing but a Narrow-winged Pug was new for the garden list.  I headed off for chicken watch and then down to Pakefield Beach for the first time in months.  The Beach Lupin display was well and truly over and most of the mature plants seem to have succumbed to the heat and had completely died off. 

Narrow-winged Pug 

The shiny sea was full of fishing terns and I counted 85 Common Terns fishing in a loose circle offshore many of which were juveniles.  I could find nothing different amongst them.   As usual Wood Pigeons were coming down to the shore and not for the first time seemed to be actually drinking sea water from the incoming waves although drinking with your head down does have its downside as I watched two of the three almost get swamped!  I suspect they are collecting gizzard sand although why not dry less salty sand from up the beach?

Common Terns

 Salty Wood Pigeons

 Almost got them

 Tree Mallow

 Perennial Wall Rocket

The Brambles were full of House Sparrows and Starlings and most of the latter were scruffy immatures in that wonderfully mish mash of fawn brown and white spottiness.  These and Dunnocks are probably the most common birds I get sent pictures of to identify but I do not mind!

Starlings

Starlings

A couple of Swallows and a Common Buzzard headed south and I tried to check the Small Whites but none stopped at all!  I looked for mines but there was nothing showing yet on the Hop but the Lilac had lots of Gracillaria syringella on the Lilac and the poor Horse Chestnut the Cameraria ohridella had been hard at work.

Gracillaria syringella

Cameraria ohridella

Phyllonorycter joanisii & Stigmella aceris on Norway Maple

Back at home I had some garden time and the House Sparrows alerted me to a raptor.  I looked up to see a Kestrel drifting over at a reasonable height and even without my bins it started ringing alarm bells.  It was very pale and clean on the underwings and was clearly dark tipped – almost to Levant Sparrowhawk extent.  Even by eye it felt like the central tail projected and the whole shape of the bird felt off so I ran inside for the camera but it had already climbed high.  I took some shots which certainly confirm the tail projection and wing tips but other than that…

Kestrel sp

Kestrel sp

I did put the news out locally as an interesting Kes in the hope that it would be seen better by someone else. Three Swifts were still lingering too.