Lowestoft Life - 25th September - 9th October 2024

There has been little time for wildlife encounters close to home in recent weeks what with Lesvos and my week on the Norfolk coast.  Antony trapped most nights at my house while we were in Lesvos and I came home to a trap full of autumnal species most pf which I have subsequently caught on other nights.

There were some new ones though with a fine male Four Spotted Footman (the legs looks purple black), my second Bloxworth Snout (Lowestoft seems to be am East Anglian hotspot) and a couple of Small Mottled Willows (a continental immigrant).

Bloxworth Snout - AW

Four Spotted Footman - AW

Small Mottled Willow - AW

Amazingly I re-caught the same Four Spotted Footman (it only had five legs) but we just as delighted to catch a Silver Spotted Veneer - Euchromius ocellea on the 25^th.  This delightful little grass moth was a real rarity until this autumn when many moth’ers added it to their garden tallies.

Four Spotted Footman - back again!

Silver Spotted Veneer - Euchromius ocellea

I have trapped most nights where I can and managed my own haul of migrant species.  Always amazing to imagine these little creatures making their way across the North Sea from translucent Olive Pearls, dart-like Rush Veneers, hyperactive Diamondbacks and others…

Gem - female

Olive Pearl (Palpita vitrealis) and Gem - male

Rush Veneer

Rusty Dot Pearl

There were other autumn regulars with lichen-cryptic Feathered Ranunculus, mushroom-inky Black Rustics, peachy Delicates and Scarce Bordered Straws, various Underwings, other Rustics and Carpets.

Angle Shades

Black Rustic

Clancy's Rustic

Delicate & Clancy's Rustic

Delicate

Delicate - AW

Feathered Ranunculus

Feathered Ranunculus

Flounced Rustic

Flounced Rustic

L-album Wainscot

Scarce Bordered Straw

Silver Y

Grey Pine Carpet

Common Marbled Carpet

A lovely rufous Large Yellow Underwing

Lesser Yellow Underwing

Lunar Underwing

A very tatty Red Underwing

Light Brown Apple Moth - LBAM - the commonest moth at the moment

Still the odd Tachystola acroxantha about too

Radford's Flame Shoulders from chez Wren. Not caught my own yet

I popped down to Pakefield Beach first thing but the sea was very poor with just a few loafing Gulls and above me I picked up Grey Wagtail and Skylark but it was disappointing to be honest.  My prize for the effort was a stuttery Cetti’s Warbler giving it go below the car park.  Not on my radar for here! 

I have spent the rest of today trying to get the garden in some sort of for the coming winter.  It has come on very well considering most of it is under a year old.  The giant Teasels have come up so that I can get to the beds but have become a towering sculpture in the middle of the garden for the Goldfinches.   I have some ideas for creating some more defined spaces but that can all wait till the winter months.

Being outside means that my senses are always hoping to pick up birds on the move and today there have been the odd Siskin, Linnet and Meadow Pipits along with a single House Martin, only my second Kestrel, two Rooks, two Buzzards and a female Sparrowhawk.

I am around now until the start of November so hopefully there will be ample time for the garden and the chance to add to my Pakefield Beach and garden lists!

A Norfolk Jaunt in the sun - 7th October 2024

I was exhausted yesterday after my week up on the Norfolk coast and chose to calmly ignore the Asian Desert Warbler up at Winterton Dunes after news broke at about 7.30am.  It turned out to be a grey and windy day and I felt little desire to go for it.

This morning however it was calm and sunny and so a poodle that way after breakfast was in order and after a short amble down through the dunes I was at its favoured little patch of stunted Birches and watching this rusty tailed sandy Sylvia – my first since the 19^th October 1991 at Flamborough Head in those days when long twitches were the norm for me.

Asian Desert Warbler 

It performed magnificently and acrobatically gleaned from buds and under leaves.  There was a good natured crowd and viewing was easy and it was good to catch up with some old friends.

Asian Desert Warbler 

After taking my fill I began to amble back watching Red Kites and Buzzards tumble over the wood and a hearing a Firecrest calling in the hedgerow back near the church where I had left the car.

Yellow legs and a rusty tail

Asian Desert Warbler 

Onwards to North Walsham for a Hoopoe that, until yesterday, had been difficult to pin down as it was feeding in gardens. As it was, this was quite the easiest Hoopoe I have ever seen and I could see it lounging on a front lawn before I even stopped the car.  It was completely un-phased but the world around it and after a while sunbathing it got up and started to probe for grubs which it tossed in the air before swallowing. Quite a faded bird but a delight to see none the less.

Hoopoe

North once again for my final bird of the day.  I talked myself out of going for the Cromer Siberian Stonechat on Saturday after the tour finished.  I was just too tired to head all the way back east from Titchwell.  A short walk and this peachy female was in the scope on a piece of Lupin infested land similar to where I saw my last UK one way back in October 1988 just along the coast at Sheringham I think.

Siberian Stonechat 

They are colour chameleons switching from super pale creamy buff to warmers brown tones; sometimes the supercilium looked big and at other times indistinct.  A richly coloured male Stonechat was using the same plot.  Interestingly the Sibe was often perch much lower down that the Euro bird and could be lost for a couple of minutes before a flight out after an airborne insect.

European Stonechat 

Siberian Stonechat 

Siberian Stonechat 

Lunch at the Old Reading Rooms beckoned before a slow cross country drive home after a most successful venture.