Lowestoft Life 8th - 12th August 2025

A pop down to Yoxford Antique Centre on Friday gave me some leaf mine time in the gardens before a wiggle back through the lanes to avoid some Darsham roadworks brought me to Darsham Marshes SWT reserve and although my late afternoon off button had been pressed and I was starting to fade, I still had a short walk around and down to the marsh itself through the small common area.  It was pretty quiet bar hordes of Migrant Hawkers and a couple of gleaming Commas and dancing Speckled Woods while six Buzzard noisily circled overhead. 

Himalayan Balsam

Common Blue Damselfly

Machimus atricapillus  

Speckled Wood

Andrea had a craft fair in Henstead over the weekend and this gave the opportunity for some exploring and so on Saturday morning after set up I headed over to Covehithe and started my walk down to the beach which nowadays takes you south to Covehithe Broad before you can safely access the beach away from the crumbling sand cliffs.

I still like a path tunnel

The walk down was incredibly quiet and whereas there were Pied Flycatchers in other local coastal locations there were literally no little passerines at all – not one – not even a Robin.  It was already warm but even the insect life seemed subdued and my best find was some nice fresh Cosmopterix ziegeralla mines on the hop.

Cosmopterix ziegeralla

Tischeria ekebladella

There were big Gulls and Corvids in the pig fields and the Broad held five Dunlin, 200 Black-headed Gulls and a mass of brown eclipse Ducks.

It was peaceful down on the beach and I followed the shoreline for easy walking to the north to get to Benacre Broad.  There was a good feeding flock of Common and Little Terns offshore and 12 Scoter headed low and south while 11 Teal went the other way.  An adult Med Gull bobbed offshore on the flat calm glassy sea.

I found the remains of the tail end of two Thornback Rays on the beach along with what I hope is a piece of Amber and a three inch long piece of clay smoking pipe.  The sandy cliffs still show the stratification of the old dune systems and the holes where the Sand Martins nested and right on cue five birds appeared and had a fly round before disappearing back over the fields.

Thornback Ray with head end removed by a Seal

Thornback Ray

Down at Benacre Broad I met up with Antony in the hide and we spent an hour scanning the assembled Terns, Ducks and Waders.  There were at least 150 Little Terns out there including so many youngsters but it seems that these are not the local birds as most failed due to natural disturbance and they may well had come down from Eccles.  A similar number of Common Terns and 40 Sandwich Terns were also with the mass and despite regular dreading we could not see what kept spooking them.

Dreading Terns

There were about 40 Black-tailed Godwits and a family party of Avocets and amongst the former there was a sleeping Spotted Redshank, a juvenile Ruff, six Greenshank and a few Redshank while a juvenile Little Ringed Plover was feeding way out the back.  A Green Sandpiper called but was too close to see and there were some Ringed Plovers and Dunlin on the spit below where over 300 Barnacle Geese were roosting on the beach!

Barnacle Geese

A Great Egret lumbered over the woodland but there was just one Little Egret on the Broad where two adult Spoonbills stood around looking bored which what they seem to do for most of the time!

Spoonbills

Essence of Great Egret

Small White

Antony kindly dropped me back at my car before I headed back to the fair in Toad Row.  I did not linger long and headed out for a walk which is what I did the following day at the fair two.  Over the two visits I walked the lanes and footpaths and did quite well on the invert front with my first Clouded Yellow of the year being the Butterfly highlight while I did my best to find a Southern Small White!  A couple of Oak Eggars zoomed around and I found a Hummingbird Hawkmoth briefly.

 

Oak Eggar

Essence of Oak Eggar

Seemingly a well marked Small White

Holly Blue

Red Admiral

Speckled Wood

There was ample opportunity for some early season leaf mine searching and I logged 21 different species on a variety of host trees and there were two huddles on Buff Tip cats on a Weeping Willow.

Buff Tip cats 

Cameraria ohridella on Horse Chestnut

Cosmopterix zieglerella on Hop

Ectoedemia heringella on Holm Oak

Lyonetia clerkella on Wild Cherry

Parornix anglicella & Bucculatrix bechsteinella - on Hawthorn

Parornix devoniella on Hazel

Phyllonorycter coryli on Hazel

Phyllonorycter corylifoliella on Hawthorn

Stigmella aceris on Field Maple

Stigmella microtheriella on Hazel

Caloptilia rufipennella on Sycamore - early mine and fold

Gracillaria syringella on Lilac

Stigmella trimaculella on Poplar 

The above are all moths but this one of Holly is the ubiquitous fly mine on Holly - Phytomyza ilicis.

I can't remember whether these communal larvae within the leaves of Broad-leaved Dock are flies or beetles?

There were lots of Meadow and Field Grasshoppers and I found a single Roesel’s Bush Cricket and my first local Slender Groundhopper.  A big bank of Goldenrod yielded some Tachina fera but very few Hoverflies and there were (like everywhere it seems) clouds of Migrant Hawkers over the fields and a few Brown Hawkers and a pleasing eight glowing Southerns.

Roesel’s Bush Cricket

Slender Groundhopper

Eurithia anthophila or very similar

Goldenrod

Tachina fera

Common Blue Damselfly

Common Darter

Migrant Hawker

Southern Hawker

Southern Hawker

Araneus diadematus

There were still House Martins and Swallows around the farm buildings and cottages and they alerted me to a Hobby circling above but the hedges were quiet and I found just the odd Blackcap, swee-ooing young Chiffchaff and scolding Whitethroat.

Hazy Hobby

Borage

Hedge Cranesbill

Hop

Lords and Ladies

Perennial Sweet Pea

Perennial Sow Thistle

Russian Vine

Scentless Mayweed

Square Stemmed St John's Wort

A naturalised Geranium

The biggest black figs I have seen in the UK and all were 10 foot up and out of reach!  I do not even think they get harvested.  Only one leaf had signs of Choreutis nemorana - give it time.

 

White Dead Nettle

On Monday I met up with Sue and Enid for a walk around Lound Lakes.  It was stinky hot and very little was still in bloom and thus the variety of Butterflies was quite poor but there were Holly and Common Blues, Small Copper and a field of wonderful different brassicas were covered in the flickering shapes of literally hundreds of Small Whites and given the scale of the White Invasion during the summer we wondered just how many Southern Small Whites could have been amongst them.  Not one stopped for a look! 

Gatekeeper

Meadow Brown

Small Copper

Green-veined White

Small White

Small White

Like Toad Row, there were hundreds of Migrant Hawkers and few Browns and we had fun checking out the weird and wonderful Galls on the Oaks.  There were more Wasp Spiders to be found this time and we heard Great Green and Dark Bush Crickets.

Common Blue Damselfly

Blue-tailed Damselfly

Common Blue Damselflies

Common Darter

Common Darter

Artichoke Gall

Knopper Gall

Silk Button Spangle Gall

Common Spangle Gall

Philanthus triangulum

Philanthus triangulum - get off my burrow - look at those jaws!

Wasp Spider

Eristalis nemorum

Peacock

Eristalis intricaria

Tachina fera

Eristalis intricaria

Nodding Thistle

Sweet Chestnut

Lesser Burdock

Annual Nettle

Common Lizard

Lunch called but there was still time for a diversion to Links Road to see the sea.  It was calm and a pleasant breeze was blowing.  A few Common Terns fished close in but there was no Little Gull in the car park.  An afternoon in the garden saw the frequent circuits from the three remaining Swifts.  There were still some young Kittiwakes on the ledges as we came through town.  Antony brought some recent trapped moths around for a show and tell - all new ones.

Echinochloa crus-galli - Enid identified this non-native grass doing well along the seafront!

Acleris emargana - Antony Wren

Coptotriche marginea - the first adult I have seen

Notocelia roborana

Psoricoptera gibbosella 

Ypsolopha scabrella

Mothing at Edgerton Road has been nightly this week with temperatures never falling below about 17c and has produced a good selection including a tiny and very scarce Small Marbled, a Bordered Straw (rarer than Scarce BS!), Narrow-winged Pug, a lovely Rhubarb & Custard decked out in pink and yellow, Marbled Greens and Ruby Tigers. 

Narrow-winged Pug - NFG

Common Wainscot

Flame Shoulder

Rusty Dot Pearl

Straw Underwing

Tawny Speckled Pug

Yellow Shell

Small Marbled - NFG

Small Marbled - Antony Wren

Sharp Angled Peacock

Pale Mottled Willow

Flounced Rustic

Agriphila tristella 

Small Dusty Wave

Oncocera semirubella - NFG

Oblique Striped - obviously one of the bred ones from several days ago hanging around!

Marbled Green

Marbled Green & Marbled Beauty

Evergestis limbata

Evergestis extimalis

Evergestis forficalis

Endotricha flammealis

Choreutis nemorana

Bordered Straw - NFG

Poplar Grey

Argyrotaenia ljungiana

We popped three traps out over at Somerleyton on Monday night and even at dusk the Migrant Hawkers were still actively feeding and five Great Green Bush Crickets were noisily stridulating but I could not find one of them in the Brambles where Dark Bush Crickets could also be heard.  A Tawny Owl hooted in the distance and Brown Hares and Rabbits were in the stubble fields.  The drive back showed countless moths in the headlights including one of the bigger Hawkmoths and numerous small Bats were diving down in front of us to catch them while a Barn Owl drifted across the road.

It was fun sifting through the traps the following morning and amongst the thousands of tiny woodland beetles we amassed at least 118 species of moth which included quite a few new ones for me.  New or otherwise some of the smartest were Frosted Orange, Dark Spinach, Purple Bar, Rosy Footman, Caloptilia alchimiella, Pine Haawkmoth and Maiden’s Blush.

Full list below:

Acrobasis tumidana

Caloptilia alchimiella 

Chilo phragmitella 

Cochylidia implicitana 

Dark Spinach

Donacaula forficella 

Ear Moth

Epinotia ramella

Eudonia truncicolella 

Frosted Orange

Light Emerald

Least Yellow Underwing

Maiden's Blush

Pine Hawkmoth

Purple Bar

Rhyacionia pinicolana 

Rosy Rustic

Small Mottled Willow

Tawny Barred Angle

Webb's Wainscot

There was plenty of good bycatch with a Nicrophorus vespillo, two big Woodland Dor Beetles, various Ground Beetles large and small, a fine Dusky Longhorn, two Common Groundhoppers, Oak Bush-cricket, Oak and Eared Leafhoppers and a fine large orange Enocospilus Parasitic Wasp.

Cinnamon Sedge Limnephilus marmoratus  common here and at home

Eared Leafhopper Ledra aurita

Oak Leafhopper Iassus lanio & friends of which there were countless!

Beetles under the trap

Woodland Dor Beetle

Dusky Longhorn Arhopalus rusticus (Antony Wren)

Longitarsus sp - been working out by the look of those thighs

Enocospilus Parasitic Wasp - a real monster!

Syritta pipiens

Common Groundhopper

Oak Bush-cricket

It was time to go home for a kip.  Some garden tinkering added Meal Moth and Yellow Shell to the tally from that night and the three Swifts were still circulating. 

Meal Moth