The days building up to this
Breckland jaunt brought rain, and lots of it however for our outing only a
light shower or two were forecast. David
got to mine shortly after 10AM and we were soon travelling down the A11 towards
Thetford and our first site of the day.
Our first location was a fairly large SSSI that brought a mixture of calcareous and
acidic Breckland grassland heath with scattered parcels of Oaks and Pine
plantation. A quick walk round and we
soon found an appropriate area to try for our first target – the Yellow-legged Clearwing. A VES lure was placed on top of an Oak stump
and a thankfully brief wait begun - it only
took a few minutes for the first of four males to investigate. Visits were brief and only one hung around for
pictures. We failed to find the next
target, the Orange-tailed Clearwing
when we were unable to find any Wayfaring-tree or Guelder Rose. As we walked around the site we couldn’t help
but notice large numbers of the tiny migrant micro moth Plutella xylostella in
the long grass with the odd Painted Lady
disturbed too. Before lunch we played a
quick visit to a small chalkpit in a secluded part of the Suffolk Brecks – here
Military Orchids grew at their only
East Anglian site alongside Common
Twayblade and Pyramidal Orchid. After lunch we visited Cranwich Camp –
several Proliferous Pink plants in
the car park and the Nationally Scarce B Crambid Thisanotia chrysonuchella was a common sight as soon as we entered the grassland. Without doubt the
highlight from this site was the vast amount of Spanish Catchfly with 100s of plants in one scraped area. In the southwest corner by some Kidney vetch
a Small Blue Butterfly basked in the
sun – the first to be recorded in Norfolk for nearly 100 years (albeit of
suspect origin)! Following another short drive we relocated nearer to Brandon
and took a stroll along the River Little Ouse and keeping a careful eye on the
Comfrey. Despite this plant being the
main food source for our next species we actually found three specimens of the
black and white micro moth Ethmia quadrillella resting on
Nettles. Whilst I was on the phone David
found another National Scarce B micro moth in the riverside vegetation - Nemapogon
koenigi. Our final stop of the
night was another piece of Breckland grassland and we decided to stick a
mercury vapour moth trap out for a few hours.
For our efforts we were rewarded with two stunning Cream-spot Tigers as well as several Barred Reds, Satin Waves
and Clouded Buffs. On top of all the moths roding Woodcock, churring Nightjar and a brief Long-eared
Owl made a fine finish to a top day.
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