Blue Eyed Birder

The drought continued. It made for tough local wildlife walks where it was often a struggle to find anything to look at but if I just sit at home then I will see next to nowt so I persevered with odd moments here and there.

The 8^th began with a deliberate mid-morning walk where some gen had pointed me in the direction of a pair of Honey Buzzards that had mysteriously appeared so late in the season. I was successful but oddly I saw two females – one in moult – and the immaculate bird even performed some shivering wing display in level flight once she had seen off the other female. With a male in the area too, hopefully these are continental overspill and will return next year in good time to possibly breed.

Honey Buzzard

There was very little insect life in the already blistering heat with just a few Migrant Hawkers and Darters and Hoverflies and Painted Ladies on the Hemp Agrimony. A couple of Kingfishers zipped by and Hobbies and Marsh Harriers put on a show before I escaped back to the air con in my car.

Agromyza flaviceps fly mine on Hop

Cosmopterix zieglerella moth mine on Hop

Great Willowherb

Frogbit

Bindweed and Syrphus sp

Helophilus pendulus

Painted Lady

Azolla filiculoides

Musca autumnalis

Purple Loosestrife

Mothing followed but the next few nights did not yield anything too spectacular but a visit to Antony did allow me to see a swarm of Hemp Agrimony Plumes in his garden. Need to encourage them into mine now!

Cabbage

Common Wainscot

Cydia amplana

A melanistic Willow Beauty

Agriphila falsella

Angle Shades

A lovely blue female Common Blue

The 12^th was Solar Eclipse day and rather than sit at home and watch from the garden we opted to head up to the Norfolk coast, stopping on the way to visit IKEA in Norwich and drop off a load of pond plants to Roger (not the Slug) in Bodham. A brief stop at Kelling gave me some very early Ivy Bees on the equally early flowering Ivy along with quite a few Tachina fera and some Hovers.

It was already hot but as we reached the coast it started to climb and we were grateful of the breeze on the Sheringham cliff top while we ate our early dinner. The plan was not to drive much further along the coast but the temperature kept climbing and went through 30c at 5pm. There was no shade and with 90 minutes too kill before the event started we drove slowly along the coast watching the Celsius rise to 32 at 6pm. I gave up in the end and parked up at Titchwell where the was indeed some shade (and scrumpable blackberries and apples) before driving back east again to North Point Pools.

It had just begun and we had the view to ourselves. The light barely changed throughout and without the glasses you would not have known that something amazing was actually happening. The birds on the pools were not affected in anyway unlike the 1999 event down in Cornwall but it was still mesmerising to watch the two celestial bodies eclipse each other. I will not take credit for using the glasses as a filter to allow me to take my pictures. I had to be careful but it worked.

As the tide pushed in, Whimbrel, Greenshank, Golden Plover, Black-tailed Godwits, Snipe, Redshank, Dunlin, Lapwing and Ringed Plover all dropped into the back of the big pool where the only water remained and two Spoonbills decided to head the other way while Marsh Harriers and Red Kites quartered.

Buzzard

Spoonbill

We drove home with the sun behind fierily setting like nothing had happened and at dusk along the Acle Straight I counted ten Buzzards and five Kestrels still hunting from the wires while a mass of swirling Starlings headed off to a reedbed roost.

More mothing followed with some smart species found with Ancylosis oblitella (Saltmarsh Knothorn) being new for me and the garden along with only my second Lesser Swallow Prominent. Straw Underwings and Vine’s Rustics began to dominate.

Bordered Pug

Cydia amplana - a brighter one

Iron Prominent

Lesser Swallow Prominent

Oncocera semirubella

Opomyza florum - a new Picture Winged Fly for me

Small Blood Vein

Saltmarsh Knothorn - Ancylosis oblitella

A short visit to Sparrows Nest Park on the 14th was almost bird free bar a roving Tit flock with a red capped Great Spotted Woodpecker but I did find some good moth leaf mines on the big Apple tree behind the Lighthouse café.

Callisto denticulella

Leucoptera malifoliella

That night was a great one with the trap (well at least by my low standards) with at least 76 species identified which included at least four new ones although technically one needs the chop! There were three species of large Caddis too and a few Ladybirds in the trap. Two Whimbrel headed south as I went back indoors not long before six.

Acleris variagana

Amazingly, this is also Acleris variagana

Red Underwing

Eudonia trunciolella - nfg

Evergestis extimalis

Evergestis limbata

Evergestis pallidata - nfg

Garden Carpet of the form 'costovata'

A tiny eeny weeny Stigmella which is quite likely samiatella

Limnephilus auricula - a medium Caddis

Limnephilus flavicornis as well as the regular L marmoratus

Our run out on the 15^th took us to various garden centres and such like where I managed to add a few Choreutis nemorana spots for Norfolk on the inevitable Figs for sale. I did get distracted by some Tachinids on the mint at Sprowston garden centre and hopefully I have enough to confirm Tachina magnicornis – a newly colonising species. As usual with such visits Dad and I always make a beeline for the ‘nearly dead’ reduced section and came home with a car full. Back in the garden I found several Painted Lady caterpillars cocooned in my Tree Mallow.

Chromatomyia lonicerae on Snowberry

Tachina magnicornis

Painted Lady

Nysius senecionis on Fleabane in the front garden

A quieter moth night but still some variety with both Small and Pale Mottled Willows again, a funky, punky Dark Spectacle and Buccalatrix albedinella which is another micro that apparently needs the chop to identify it…

Dark Spectacle

Spectacle

A visit to Chez Wren to drop of some plants and such like gave me the chance to add a few more moths to my growing tally.

Agriphila inquinatella

Barred Red - most are green

Coleophora salicorniae

Cydia microgrammana

Lesser Cream Wave

Lesser Wax Moth

Scrobipalpa salicorniae

I dragged myself down to Pakefield Beach after breakfast on the 17^th and had a walk through the patch. All the beach vegetation was simply dead – completely crispy fried and the Elms looked burnt and even more unhappy than usual. There were no small birds bar the resident House Sparrows so I tried to find some inverts.

Beewolves were breeding in the upper beach areas but I could find one Grasshopper down there so I came back up to the main path where I was delighted to find a group of Firebugs feeding on Tree Mallow seeds. I retrospectively remembered that Chris Lansdell may have reported them from down here too.

Beewolf - Philanthus triangulum

Four young Brown Rats were out foraging for seeds on the beach

Firebugs - Corizus hyoscyami

Over the flat sea I picked up three Sandwich Terns close in and two waders heading low and north comprised juveniles of Curlew Sandpiper (patch tick) and Dunlin but there was nothing else moving.

With the opening of the new KCIII coastal path it meant that I could now continue south through Pakefield Holiday Park and back along the cliff top towards the old Coastguards. It is a vast area of mown meadows, thick hedges and blocks of scrub and I will return for a better look and hope that whoever is ringing down there turns down (not off) their overly loud attraction tapes that were blasting out singing Pied Flycatchers, Warblers and Redstarts from several patches. I saw not one bird in those areas and just found a small party of Whitethroats near some old brick ruins whose origins I am unsure off.

The tip of Kessingland Beach

Californian Poppy

Canadian Fleabane

Mugwort

Fathen

Duke of Argyll's Teaplant

Fennel

Large Flowered Evening Primrose

Opium Poppy

Field Poppy

Greater Burdock

Tansy

Narrow-leaved Ragwort

Common Ragwort

I started to loop back and cut inland a little but then ran foul of the local plane flying club into whose ‘airfield’ I had stumbled. I was asked if I could read the signs they had put up but I hadn’t as there weren’t any. I asked if the empty little wooden posts I had seen along the cliff top used to hold their signage. I apologised and went on my way back towards town and the track behind the allotments were some slightly frazzled leaf mining took place. It was pleasing to find much active evidence of Caloptilia fidella on the Hop.

Caloptilia fidella

Camareria ohridella

Cosmopterix ziegerella

Gracillaria syringella

Lyonetia clerkella

Stigmella aurella

White Bryony

Rosa rugosa

Sea Buckthorn

Tamarisk

Migrant Hawker

Over the next couple of days the skies darkened and we had several spells of proper heavy rain for what felt like the first time in a couple of months. I managed to trap on the night of the 18^th which gave me my first Mouse Moth and a smart White-lined Dart amongst others but the 19^th was a no goer as a violet and wondrous storm took its time to pass over town and out to sea. The lightening was almost continuous and truly electrifying to watch.

Carcina quercana

Delicate

Ephestia woodiella

Mouse Moth

Orange Swift

White-line Dart

Another new Caddis - quite small Polycentropus flavomaculatus

And this lovely Xanthagramma pedissequum was also in the trap

A potter up into the Broads on the 20^th saw at least 25 Spoonbills roosting in two groups on the Breydon Water Lumps as we drove through and there was a Great White Egret and Marsh Harrier on the Acle Straight. I lucked out with the Black-winged Kite at Sea Palling as the main viewing gate was taken up with one birders car and seats but I managed to park up down the road and look back as the skies darkened and the next thunderstorm rolled through. Camper vans and people who did not know how wide their cars were forced a premature departure. Back at home I tinkered around the garden that already seems to breathing a sigh of relief.

The fig crop has been excellent but I have had to freeze many as I could not keep up with consumption and my ornamental Blackberry seems to be the only one producing any fruit this season but the Raspberry canes that I brought with me from Kent are prolific at growing and spreading but the fruit once again has been made up of just three or four drupelets so I have already cut them down and will be taking them out in the winter. A Lesser Whitethroat was calling over the back and popped up on top of the old Elm hedge.

Mothing last night was quite poor but Rusty Dot Pearl and Rush Veneer suggested that immigration was still occurring and three very different Square Spot Rustics were new arrivals. A tiny microcaddis had me thinking it was a moth and a Pond Olive was another new Caddis.

Scrobipalpa ocellatella

Scrobipalpa ocellatella - most look like this but the one above was a different colour

Square Spot Rustic

Agraylea multipunctata

Pond Olive - Cloeon dipterum

I have always had an interest in trying to identify whatever I see but engaging with the Pan Species Listing website has given me the chance to find out just how much I have seen. It is not a competition – simply a means to creating a running total for your complete UK biodiversity. The potential total is over 75,000 and the folks at the top are beyond the 10,000 mark. I have been steadily entering my species which has been fun and I am sure I shall find some missing ones along the way – trying to work out what sea life you have seen or remembering two different Stick Insects on the Scillies or finding my list of lichens from my brief dalliance during lockdown. I am currently on 2534 and have not done vascular plants yet which may take a little while!

This morning – 21^st – I headed down to Links Road for a look at the gulls. I have to admit to being a bit rusty and some of the plainer marked but hefty juvenile Gulls left me veering towards Yellow-legged Gull but I need some help. I was in no doubt of the bruiser out on the groynes though! A little bit older and far more obvious.

1cy Herring Gull

1cy Lesser Black-backed Gull - I will add some more car park gullage once I have got my head round them

1cy Yellow-legged Gull

A superb Caspian Gull and two Med Gulls were also in the car park and off towards Ness Point an adult Little Gull buoyantly drifted up and down.

1cy Caspian Gull

1cy Mediterranean Gull

1cy Mediterranean Gulls

1cy Mediterranean Gull

ad Little Gull

I heard Common Sandpiper and Ringed Plover and found five Turnstones but no Purple Sandpiper and just three Sandwich Terns were patrolling while off shore there were three Gannets including a juvenile and four Kittiwakes. The north-easterly breeze was actually quite cool – not a word that had been used in recent months!

Turnstone

Turnstone - the last ones I saw were with the Walruses at Poolepynten in Svalbard

Bladderwrack - Fucus vesiculosus. The good thing about PSL is that I am looking at everything even more than I used to

Gutweed - Ulva intestinalis

Purple Laver- Porphyra umbilicalis

Black nightshade - Solanum nigrum

Prostrate Knotgrass - Polygonum aviculare

Spear-leaved Orache - Atriplex prostrata with a fly mine I have not worked out yet

Back at home I found a Southern Oak-bush Cricket in the garden and as the rain returned three Swifts appeared overhead along with a few Swallows and my first garden House Martin of the year.

Southern Oak-bush Cricket

Blue Eyed Birder

Friday, 21 August 2026

Lowestoft Life - 8th - 21st August 2026