Lowestoft Life - Churchyard Grubbing - 16th September 2026

My drive to Stansted was direct but with some appropriate wiggles to investigate some of the churchyards notionally along my A143 route.  I began at St John’s, Barnby as I had worked out how to park on the infamous Barnby Bends. 

The quaint church and grounds is almost invisible from the A146 and provided the usual leaf mine suspects along with a couple of Speckled Woods and Common Darters.  Tree of Heaven (PSL 3413) has naturalised into the neighbouring woods.

Tree of Heaven - Ailanthus altissima 

From here I ventured across the border into Norfolk and randomly started at the first church signposted off the A143 which was All Saints, Kirby Kane – I had not even heard of the village!  It as an open plan churchyard with huge Atlas Cedars (PSL 3414).  I found Luffia lapidella and some lovely Polypody Ferns on my short circuit and I could hear Nuthatches, Goldcrests and Coal Tits from the large ornamental gardens beyond with lots of specimen pines and such like.

Atlas Cedar

Atlas Cedar

Polypody Fern

Luffia lapidella

Phyllonorycter tristrigella on Elm

A quick Google and I found a selection of other churches on a westward track and so aimed for St Michael’s in Broome which is set back down its own track.  I quickly found Luffia here and amongst the leaf mines there were a couple of Stigmella catharticella on Purging Buckthorn which is a shrub I seldom see either.

Purging Buckthorn - more mature leaves

Stigmella catharticella on Purging Buckthorn 

A Marsh Harrier cruised over and a party of House Martins went the other way and a Jay was doing both parts of Tawny owl calls with some aplomb.  The Whitebeams here were Swedish but I am discovering that without some higher level of knowledge sorting out Elms is a no goer at the moment! 

Swedish Whitebeam

Some Laburnums in the hedge seem to be the hybrid one created to barely have any of the poisonous seedpod L. anagyroides x alpinum = L. x watereri (PSL 3415) and the Horse Chestnuts here were covered in Camareria ohridella mines. A Clouded Yellow whizzed through.

Horse Chestnut

Camareria ohridella

I had lunch in the car park and watched the local Buzzards before being distracted by a flower in the verge which seems to be Common Buckwheat (PSL 3416). 

Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum)

From here I drove past the Emmaus Covent where a large overhanging Fig that I had not noticed before added a new spot of Choreutis nemorana before my next church of St Mary’s in Ditchingham itself.

It was surrounded by large Horse Chestnuts and towering Limes and I could hear Nuthatches, Long-tailed Tits, Treecreepers and two Marsh Tits that were sneezing at each other.  Firebugs were everywhere with over 100 counted with many jammed into corners of whorly scrolls on stones.   Xanthogramma pedissequum, Episyrphus balteatus and Eristalis tenax represented Hoverflies and a Tachina fera was also seen well.

Firebugs - Pyrrhocoris apterus 

Firebugs - Pyrrhocoris apterus 

A Willow Beauty was a ‘real moth’ as opposed to the mines I was finding and there were two new plants with Burnet-Saxifrage (PSL 3417) which looked like an Umbellifer and Dwarf Mallow which I think I may have seen before somewhere (PSL 3418). Rooks cawed overhead in a very autumnal way.

Burnet-Saxifrage- Pimpinella saxifraga

Burnet-Saxifrage- Pimpinella saxifraga

Dwarf Mallow - Malva neglecta

Willow Beauty

On again, to St Peter’s in Hedenham where you walk under a huge copper Norwayish Maple and Atlas Cedar to get in. 

I added some Elm mines here as well as the galls of Dryocosmus kuriphilus on Sweet Chestnut, the funky wiggles of Elm Zigzag Sawfly and a new Harvestman with Paroligolophus agrestis (PSL 3418) that was sat up in a Hawthorn.

Dryocosmus kuriphilus on Sweet Chestnut

Elm Zigzag Sawfly (Aproceros leucopoda) 

Paroligolophus agrestis

There were Firebugs here too and a smart Twin-spot Centurion, a rather slender Soldierfly.

Twin-spot Centurion (Sargus bipunctatus)

Rolling Stones lips...

Psyche casta

The next church west was St Andrew’s in Bedingham which had a fine row of Common Whitebeams along the roadside while in the hedge I found a strange smallish tree that seems to be an Ash-leaved Maple which I had not heard of before (PSL 3419).

One of several round towers wit hexagonal tops

Ash-leaved Maple - Acer negundo

Common Whitebeam

I looked like the whole churchyard had recently had a good haircut and I struggled to find much but the Hop in the hedge did contain the mines of my first Cosmopterix ziegerella for the day and I eventually found a few Luffia lapidella.  I have not been finding this Bagworm in every churchyard and the numbers have often been very low.  I disturbed a Muntjac who just stopped and gave me a hard stare before lifting his tail and bounding off and above me a Red Kite cast a shadow.

Cosmopterix ziegerella

Elder

Muntjac

Pisaura mirabilis

I had enough puff for a couple of final stops with All Saints at Woodton not adding much new other than several Birch leaves covered in Spotted Regal Sawfly larvae (PSL 3420) that all stood on their heads and wiggled their bums at me when I got too close.

Spotted Regal Sawfly larvae - (Nematus septentrionalis)

St Margarets at Topcroft was better with a good old hedge of natives and their associated mines and a big old Crab Apple gave me Stigmella malella and the mine of Grapholita lobarzewski on an actual apple.  Apparently I had seen the adult moth before and think it was from my Kent trapping days.  

Grapholita lobarzewski 

Stigmella malella 

A tiny Leafhopper on the Elm may have seen me passing it over in the past, but not now and roll up my final new PSL species for the day Ribautiana ulmi (PSL 3421).The Box hedge had been recently decimated by Box Moths and it was pleasing to end my churchyard visits with more calling Marsh Tits and a random Rush Veneer!

Ribautiana ulmi

It was time to start cutting back across to Stansted where I was being out up in the Novotel before the early flight to Mallorca the next morning but even this initial wiggle saw me stopping to watch a covey of six roadside Grey Partridges near Wattlefield.

It had been quite a little adventure – Speed Churchyard Grubbing – but it had taken me to villages I had never even heard of despite them being only just off one of my normal transit routes.  I had found 30 different larval Moth species along with two Bagworms and three ‘real moths’, several other cool leaf grazers with Sawflies and Mites, two Grasshoppers, one Dragonfly, four Butterflies, Firebugs, some good Flies, both native and naturalised botany, several Hornets, Ivy Bees and Common Wasp in huge numbers in every churchyard but just a single Bombus pascuorum to represent Bumblebees and a good suite of birds while on my travels.