Lowestoft Life - 22nd October 2024

A nice little selection in my south Lowestoft garden last night (21st) with ten moths of eight species and a further 17 from the trusty Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM if you see it abbreviated anywhere!). They included my first two Musotima nitidalis, both Grey Pine and Common Marbled Carpet, Mallow and Green Brindled Crescent amongst others.

Marbled Fern - Musotima nitidalis

Some of my Light Brown Apple Moths (LBAMs) are a bit odd

Mallow

Common Marbled Carpet

Grey Pine Carpet 

Oh and Blair's Shoulder Knot from the day before

Green Brindled Crescent

Double Striped Pug

Bordered Chestnut

Black Rustic

With the sun shining I dragged myself out for a walk around Fisher Row and Oulton Marshes this morning.  I was a little chilly at first but was pleasantly warm in the sunshine and I had it in my mind to find a Yellow-browed or Pallas’s Warbler.  As it was I never even heard a Chiffchaff but there were a couple of noisy active Tit flocks with particularly obliging Long-tails amongst them.  I heard Treecreeper and Goldcrest and there were a few Song Thrushes around the Ivy clumps.

Long-tailed Tit

The ’winking’ of Pinkfeet drew my eyes up and I could see about 300 way off towards Fritton Lake and then about the same number again arrived from the east. What a sight and sound so close to home.  Antony rang at the same time to say that about 500 had just gone over his house and were heading south so there were over 1000 birds in the area today!

Pinkfeet 

The marshes were green but dry with just a few Herring Gulls and Rooks and not even one Chinese Water Deer anywhere. Down at Oulton Dyke I could hear Reed Buntings in the phragmites and a pair of Stonechats were flycatching avidly. Several Buzzards and a single female Marsh Harrier were up and about and a pair of Kestrels were vocally patrolling the marsh.

Stonechat

Grey Heron

Common Buzzard

Common Buzzard

Kestrel

I ambled along the levee with Common Darters and a Migrant Hawker basking in the Brambles before I dropped down onto the cut through path. It was even warmer down here and it was prime leaf mining territory too and I found at least 19 species within leaf mines, blotches, folds and seedheads as well as a Narycia duplicella bagworm going about its lichen grazing on a fencepost and several flitting Nettle Taps.

Phyllonorycter rajella on Alder

Phyllonorycter viminiella on Osier type

Phyllonorycter devoniella  on Hazel

There were many more Common Darters and I counted 11 Willow Emeralds too some of which had taken on a purple sheen in old age. A single Red Admiral was on the Ivy with the usual Hoverflies for this time of year and there were plenty of Common Wasps and some hungry Hornets but not one Ivy Bee.

Common Darter

Willow Emerald

Willow Emerald

Eristalis pertinax

Eristalis pertinax

Helophilus pertinax

Mellinus arvensis - possibly!

I could smell dog Fox the whole way round and a Muntjac flashed her tail and crashed through the Brambles while a large dark lump in the ditch along side me suddenly loudly splashed and dove underneath – An Otter! I waited but the view was obscured and I did not resurface anywhere I could see.

Woody Nightshade

Bramble

Rosehip

Hemp Agrimony

Robin's Pin Cushion

I ambled back, warmed by the autumnal sunshine pleased with my efforts.  On the way home I drove over Mutford Lock and glanced at the pontoon as I usually do (there were Turnstones there yesterday) and spied what I was sure was a Tern sat amongst the Black-headed Gulls so a quick backtrack and a I walked over the road to check it out.  I was very pleased to discover a 1^st-winter Common Tern sat there looking quite content on its dinky little short legs. A most pleasing end to proceedings!

Common Tern

 Common Tern