Lowestoft Life - 20th - 23rd June 2025

I was at my parents in Ilford before heading back to Lowestoft on Thursday morning and spent a couple of hours loafing in the warm and sunny garden where I found that the Choreutis nemorana was busy making a mess of both fig trees.  The Callipcarpa was in full flower and had five species of Bumblebee in attendance in good numbers as well as a few Hoverflies while one of the big Megachile Leafcutters was busy vibrating across the Scabious where a lemon yellow Misumena vatia sat in wait.  My four train journey home was pleasant and at under £25 return I will definitely doing so again.

Misumena vatia

Two Spot Ladybird

Choreutis nemorana

That evening back in Lowestoft at the Wrens I got to help with the moth trap sorting and enjoyed Elephant and Eyed Hawkmoths and a good refresher session.

Eyed Hawkmoths

Elephant Hawkmoth 

Friday 20^th was catch up day and in the early evening I joined Antony on a trip to his new work patch of Benacre Broad to do the last check of the day on the Little Tern colony.  To be honest I was completely taken aback and I do not think I have ever been to a proper Little Tern breeding area before.  At least 300 were present with over a hundred nests so far on the fenced off shingle and other birds having a wash and brush up on the Broad shore or simply resting on the beach before dreading out over the sea to engage in some last minute fishing.  It was all quite magical.

There were four Ringed Plover broods of different ages on the beach from micro fluff balls to fledged youngsters and two each of Oystercatcher and Avocet too.  Some Black-tailed Godwits were getting pushed around by the Avocets and there seemed to be an inordinate number of Mute Swans on the Broad.

We walked back as the sun set to put on the moth traps and put up a couple of Brown Silver Lines in the process while we tried to step between the innumerable Ant-lion pits in the sandy areas.

Ant-lion pits

I trapped that night with just 35 species caught but it did include my own Elephant Hawkmoth, a lovely Anania coronata and a few tiddlers.

Clouded Silver

Anania coronata

The heatwave continued and my garden was full of insect life the next morning and it was good to see so many Dasypoda hirtipes frantically zipping between yellow blooms.  Most were males but I found two females too.  After some jobs I headed over to Carlton Marshes, tempted by the chance of seeing some Vagrant Emperors – a species I had never seen in the UK. 

It was warm and I ended up completing a full circuit and was blown away by the sheer number of larger Dragonflies and I came away happy that I had seen at least five Vagrant Emperors (four males), four male Lesser Emperors and seven Blue Emperors.  Add in 17 Green-eyed Hawkers, Scarce and Four Spotted Chasers, dozens of Black-tailed Skimmers and three male Red-veined Darters and it was an Odonata fest.  There were the usual Damselflies and some gauzy Banded Demoiselles down by the river.

Vagrant Emperors - all pictures by Gavin Durrant

Variable Damselflies

Black-tailed Skimmer

Green-eyed Hawker

Scarce Chaser

Banded Demoiselle

Banded Demoiselle

Banded Demoiselle

I counted six Small Tortoiseshells on the tracks, Small Copper and a plenty of Meadow Browns while a Bittern had two energetic circuits and a Hobby was playing with the increasing breeze.

Bittern

Bittern

Anasimyia lineata

Small Copper

Small Tortoiseshell

Tropdia scita

Sedge Warbler

Arrowhead

Marsh Valerian

Frogbit

Greater Bladderwort

Water Soldier

Yellow Waterlily

At lunchtime I ambled down towards the beach to the First Light Festival and had an enjoyable pint on the beach with David Lindo who was one of the event guest speakers.  It was grand to have a proper catch up although I did get a wee bit burnt in the process – silly boy!

'We're on the beach!'

Dudes on the beach

Another trapping session overnight did not bring in the haul that others managed but I was pleased just to be creating some moth data but I did have a herd of Elephants, a Spinach and what I think was my first Bramble Shoot.

Brambleshoot

Uncertain

Treble Brown Spot

Spinach

I have had car issues this week too and this afternoon I took Andrea’s car for its MOT (it passed!) and had a wander around the back roads of Carlton Colville while I waited and discovered an amazing flower filled meadow in the process lurking beyond the Bloodmoor Hill Community Centre.  It was a sea of heavily scented Hogweed with scattered patches of Knapweed, Creeping Thistle, Bedstraw and Scabious and it had the insect life to match.

Narrow-bordered Five Spot Burnets flicked between the blooms with Essex Skippers, Meadow Browns, Oedemera nobilis, Megachile bees, a few Bumbles and a selection of Hoverflies including Xanthogramma pedissequum and Chrysotoxum veralli.

Honeysuckle

Red Admiral

Essex Skipper

Essex Skipper

Narrow-bordered Five Spot Burnet

Narrow-bordered Five Spot Burnet

Hogweed

Ladies Bedstraw

Meadow Vetchling

Agrimony

Meadow Grasshopper

Oedemera nobilis

Sphaerophoria scipta

Megachile centuncularis

Bombus pascuorum

I got home within the hour and then turned round and went to collect my own poorly car which had miraculously been reborn since its roadside demise on Friday lunchtime. 

Still catching up on my Bornean sleep deficit though!