Blue Eyed Birder: Lowestoft Life - 29th August

29^th-31^st August:

Bank Holiday weekend unusually saw some East Anglian perambulations. Despite being up here for three years now, I still find it odd that if we want to potter out on a BHW then we can, where as back in North Kent we rarely even went out far at weekends because of the congestion and such like.

There was little in the way of wildlife watching but I did see four Glossy Ibis flying around with some Rooks at Salthouse, Red Kites, Buzzards and Marsh Harriers all along the coast and Ivy Bees in profusion anywhere their favourite plant was flowering.

Sunflowers at North Point Pools

1^st September:

Some local jobs gave me the chance to visit St Mary’s in Blundeston as it was a churchyard I had not had a poke around. The requisite Luffia lapidella was duly found along with Migrant Hawker and Common Darter and a rather surprising Wall Brown. Black Spleenwort was a new Fern for up here – I last saw it on one of my Lockdown circuits from Strood growing on an old railway bridge and I had a sneaky feeling that the low growing Knapweed may be Brown and indeed it was.

The Norman family all got to a ripe old age

Honesty

Cherry Plum

Black Spleenwort - Asplenium adiantum-nigrum

Brown Knapweed - Centaurea jacea

Common Darter

Metopoplax ditomoides

Muntjac

Stigmella plagicolella

Wall Brown

Night Scented Stock - Matthiola longipetala

I picked up Andrea and headed for home and got settled onto my pc and did not see the heaps of messages about a Red-footed Falcon in the middle of town that I had already driven past four times that day! Anyway, I was over the Gull Wing in a few minutes and could actually see this little falcon sat on the eaves of the blue wall with ATMs Green Eyed Hawker on in.

Contemplating its next meal?

I parked up in Wicks and walked back and spent the next hour watching it feeding within just a few feet of us. It was completely unphased by us, the noisy traffic and frequent yobby shouts from those within and the gathering of local birders enjoyed showing it off to anyone who stopped and asked what we were watching. Amazingly it would seem that this was actually day four of its residence just here but not one of us had seen it on our perambulations around town.

juvenile Red-footed Falcon

It was happily coming down and catching Grasshoppers from the scraggy grass just in front of us and I believe that subsequently this was augmented with some non-local orthopterans! It is still there today and amazingly a local falconer has been down to attempt to catch it as it ‘must need help’. A polite conversation moved him along but sadly I would not be surprised if it suddenly goes missing while no birders are on site.

juvenile Red-footed Falcon

I do not think I have seen a fresh out of the nest juvenile before and when sat on the fence, all the rusty browns, black eye makeup and white face made it look like an oversized Tree Sparrow – although I have probably seen more Red-foots in Suffolk in the last ten years than I have the latter!

The Red-footed Falcon almost landed between them

A pop round to Chez Wren to drop some stuff off added more new moffs including a smart Loxostege stiticalis looking like an oversized Pyrausta despicata.

Loxostege stiticalis

Apotomis lineana

Caloptilia azaleella

Eastern Nycteoline

Caloptilia falconipennella - I had only seen the mine before

I trapped overnight with a Centre Barred Sallow and Pearly Underwing being my personal highlights.

Pearly Underwing

Mottled Rustic

Centre Barred Sallow

Clancy's Rustic

possibly Curculio venosus

Limnephilus affinis - yet another new Caddisfly

2^nd September:

After a late breakfast I headed up the Waveney Valley where the marshes gave me Buzzards and Red Kite amongst other raptors along with a couple of new plants too before I headed into Worlingham to see a tree.

A very tall grass - possibly Black Bent - Agrostis gigantea

Water Chickweed - Myosoton aquaticum

Water Forget-me-Not

Water-pepper - Persicaria hydropiper

Technically it could have been called tree twitching but as people know from my Lockdown Walk days, I have always been fond of a good tree. This one was an historic 30m Caucasian Elm (Zelkova carpinifolia) that collapsed into three nearby bungalows in May 2015. It was planted in about 1760 at the original entrance to Worlingham Hall and was pollarded after the collapse but even so it is still has a massive trunk.

Caucasian Elm - Zelkova carpinifolia

Onwards and into All Saints churchyard where I hunted for moth Bagworms on the graves and found four species including Dahlica triquetrella which is the rare one I found on the same stones two years ago.

Dahlica triquetrella - This one uses the parts of deceased tiny insects to create its home

Narycia duplicella (the pasty shaped one) many had actually emerged as adult moths

Narycia duplicella

Taleporia tubulosa

Harlequin Ladybirds and their larvae were everywhere and a microscopic bug that landed on my arm somehow stayed still enough for a pic. It was only three or four mm long but it would appear to have a name that is decidedly longer.

Harlequin Ladybird

The tiny Cardiastethus fasciiventris

Dyer's Mazegill - Phaeolus schweinitzii - an immature!

Lawson's Cypress - Chamaecyparis lawsoniana

Giant Redwood - Sequoiadendron giganteum

Silver Lime- Tilia tomentosa - it is all about the veins

Red-legged Shieldbug

From here I stopped at St Boltolph’s, North Cove – a church yard I had visited before but until a few days ago I was unaware of the famous early 14th-century chancel murals depicting the Passion of Christ and a Doom scene which were revealed under plaster in the 1870s. I may be unreligious but I do like history and a good church and it was well worth popping my head inside for a while.

The churchyard have me my fifth Bagworm with Psyche casta but no others whatsoever. A fresh Angle Shades was sat up in a Beech tree where wiggles caught my eye including Stigmella crataegella (thanks Antony) on Hawthorn which was new.

Psyche casta

Angle Shades

Double Beech tree fun! - Stigmella hemargyrella top (starts on the edge) and Stigmella tityrella below (starts on the main rib)

and on Norway Maple - Phyllonorycter joannisi blotch and Stigmella aceris wiggle

Stigmella crataegella

Dryocosmus kuriphilus - a gall on Sweet Chestnut that I had only ever seen at Ranscombe

An immature Firebug scurried off and there were Field and Meadow Grasshoppers aplenty but it was not really bright enough for other insects although it was just over 20c so I began the crawl home for lunch behind the local dustcart...