Anne's Journal

 Monday August 28 My day had a shocking start - a cold shower. Not deliberate, the shower started playing up. I thought that maybe Pam had forgotten and turned the washing machine on. No she hadn't.  Recovering downstairs, Pam burst in having been alerted by a squirrel, sitting on the electricity post in the hedge, munching on something. Our hazel nuts are ripe.    I'd asked Adrian to check them on Friday but he thought that they weren't ready yet. I've discovered that not many people know when vegetables and fruit are at their optimum for picking. Brought up in a small Welsh village surrounded by a wooded countryside full of nuts, blackberries, wild strawberries, whinberries, plums and apples, we kids knew where they were and when they were ripe. Unlike today, 'stranger danger' was unknown, we ran free. Snacking on fruit and nuts meant that we didn't even have to go home for lunch during the long summer holiday. We also grew our own vegetables, so it's ...

 Friday August 25 Our time is largely spent on moths at the moment. We, (Pam) put out two traps almost every night and we go to our group meetings at Natural Surroundings on Tuesdays and at Cley on Thursdays. N.S. is restricted to members, Cley is more open. The latter has a few open meetings every year, aimed at children. We continue to trap a few good moths at home. This week, our first  Oblique Striped Rusty-dot Pearl both of the above are immigrants, and a very worn Peacock We have many more beetles, in both number and variety of species, in our traps, than either of the group locations. NS has extensive and very varied habitat, so I find that surprising. Yesterday, we had a species of Click beetle, long and slim with an articulated body. It never sits still, this is the best I could do. According to ObsId it's a Stenagostus rhombeus. It's also the Shield Bug season. Virtually the only species we get is the Red-legged or Hawthorn Shield Bug. As we have a hawthorn hedge the...

 Monday August 21 We haven't seen, nor heard, a Green Woodpecker for two days now. All I have is a quick shot taken from my desk, through the sun lounge window.   Not much activity on the feeders either. The gangs of young tits and Goldfinches seem to have dispersed. House Martins are still feeding their second brood of vociferous young on our neighbour's roof apex, the village Swifts disappeared at the end of July, as is the norm. I haven't got beetlemania (sic), but they do keep turning up in and around the moth traps. Yesterday, we had a Lesser Stag Beetle, only the second we have found in the garden. I was wiping out the empty moth trap when I noticed the beetle sitting on my cloth. Where did it come from? It wasn't in the trap. I'd shaken it off the cloth before I thought of photographing it. Length: up to 3cm   May to September The lesser stag beetle may be smaller than its famous cousin, but it is still a relatively large beetle with large jaws. Adults c...

Wednesday August 17  We'd been promised a southerly 'plume' of hot weather towards the end of the week. To-day was almost cloudless and a comfortable temperature when we set off. Earlier than anticipated, as a phone call from Specsavers in North Walsham cancelled my 9.30 check-up appointment for my new hearing aids. Rachel is ill. A nuisance, because that's another 'free' day partially taken up next week. The only deviation to-day on our drive west, was a dive down the old road towards Harpley Cottages. Known to us as Mud Lane,  it involves crossing double yellow lines part of the way down a hill. The only other traffic in the lane is a very occasional farm vehicle or, once, a dog walker. The latter get everywhere. Dog walkers probably say the same thing about birders. The hedge rows are unkempt and very overgrown. Linnets, a Bullfinch female, Song Thrush and Goldfinch erupted before us. The only butterflies flying to-day were large White - until two second broo...

Saturday August 12 The lid we use to cover the gap left when the actinic tube is removed, gave some idea of what was to come.   The interior of the trap and its egg boxes was covered by dozens of  small Black Beetles which I know as a species of Pollen Beetle. Pollen beetles are small green, bronzy or black shiny beetles that visit the flowers of a wide range of ornamental plants and vegetables, where they feed on pollen. They rarely cause damage in gardens and are part of garden wildlife. Pollen beetles belong to the beetle family Nitidulidae, which also includes the the sap beetles. There are about 90 species of this family in beetle, many feed on fungi, sap runs or dried carrion. About half the nitidulid beetles are ollen beetles belonging to the subfamily Meligethinae. Most are dark in colour and they feed in flowers and flower buds as larvae. Such a nuisance, as they scurry about disturbing the moths resting in the boxes. I spent a lot of time brushing the...

 Friday August 11 After weeks of rain, we now have hot and humid August days. Not brilliant for moths as we also have bright moonlit nights. The Perseid meteorite showers are due this weekend, I hope for some clear skies in which to enjoy the spectacle. Wet and hot also means that  the weeds are proliferating, the troughs I weeded so assiduously a month ago now look as though they were not done at all. The strawberries are also producing a myriad runners. It's true, a gardener's work is never done, thank goodness for Adrian who achieves some semblance of order in the few hours a week he spends here. I saw a new moth at Cley yesterday, a lovely one too. A Beautiful Yellow Underwing which lives up to its name. A visitor named Louie trapped on Kelling Heath and potted two of them, one showing its underwing . I didn't have a chance to photograph, as I was doing the scribing, here's one from the web. Pam put a lure out in the garden this afternoon and trapped a Yellow-legged...

 Thursday August 3 My 85th birthday.  Finding a Rosy Rustic in this morning's moth trap was a harbinger of Autumn. Like all wildlife, moths haven't read the books, so do make extra early or laste appearances every year. There was a Rosy Rustic in the NS moth traps a couple of weeks ago. Apart from a requested doctor's visit, I have not been out for a week, suffering from an infection and extreme shortage of breath. Half way through a second course of antibiotics and an increasae in fluid retention tablets, I was feeling well enough to take a birding ride. I might even have called in at the Cley Moth Group session if the Pale Scarlet Underwing had been retained. It was accidentally released by someone who should have known better, opening the dirty container to take a better look.  I hope that he was suitable penitent to all those present who had not yet seen the moth. Although enjoyable, as always, the day's birding was not good in either species seen or experienced. A ...