Marshes at Beccles

This morning I walked Beccles Marshes, on the River Wall I heard five Cettis Warblers and plenty of Sedge Warblers that were all singing singularly in the middle of leafless Salix Caprea trees. There were four Brimstones along the river bank and more than 10 of Peacocks and Small Tortoiseshells. The first Common Whitethroat of the year (for me ) was heard too. The Tussilago farfara was also in seed heads now.
There was also plenty of Carex riparia along the river banks too.

Forget me Not

Whilst visiting Beccles Common today I found the perennial Myosotis sykvatica but with white flowers! the normal coloured flowers were in bud but the full flowers were pure white

New Norfolk Tetrad record

On Sunday last I led a walk with Branch Y of the Wild flower society to Bath Hills at Ditchingham. Whilst at lunch in the garden with the estate owner she gave me a plant found in her orchard. It was immediatly identified as Ophioglossum vulgatum. Adders Tongue Fern. In the evening whilst checking the Norfolk Flora (Bull etal)I found that the plant is new to this tetrad and is quite distant from any other records.

Another Adder Day

Met up with nine fellow reptile enthusiasts to survey the Adder site in the Suffolk Sandlings. Some of the group were beginners so a few points on finding adders was in order before we began searching. The grand total was 15 including two females.
We also say > 10 Common Lizards but no Grass Snakes or Slowworms.

One new flower for my WFS Diary was Viola canina (Heath Dog Violet)in the rides at this site.

Mining Bees

What a great day on Thursday for Mining Bees. On Beccles Common I saw Tawny Mining bees with full pollen sacks on their legs make new burrows on the sandy edges of the common. soon they attracted the Cuckoo solitary Bee Melecta albifrons as seen here.

It seems a good site for mining bees I wonder how many more I will spot this year here.

Spring arrivals

One of my regular sites is a small reserve in the upper Waveney valley. Today I found three basking Grass Snakes. a Brimstone and a Bloody nosed Beetle.
Willow warblers, Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs were in song too

Field testeing Field Keys

Today Eileen and I visited Gunton and Foxburrow Wood in Lowestoft to try out John Poland and Eric Clements year old key to plants not in flower. We first tried to key one of the Limes (Tilia)by refering to the twigs and buds. It worked but we became stuck on what the author means by hairless or more or less so. Next I have always wanted to correctly identify a Blue Anemone which has been naturalised in Gunton Wood.
It keyed out vegetatively as Blue anemone (Anemone appenina) and flowers were confirmed in the botanists bible "Stace".
next we entered Foxburrow Wood that has several ancient woodland indicators. here we found Wood Anemone (Anemone nemorosa) and Wood Sorrel (oxalis acetosella)
I am looking forward to identifying some Salix species this week and see if the new keys are as easy as the authors say.