Nature Notes October 2023
Nature Notes October 2023
The beginning of autumn is a quiet, in between time of year, as most of our avian summer visitors have flown south but those that winter with us have yet to arrive. On a walk to Whitwell Common we saw one or two House Martins over the town and the odd Chiffchaff sang its monotonous little song from track-side hedges, but the only resident birds singing were the Robins. They are very unusual, in that once the breeding season is over, the male and female birds go their separate ways, each defending their own territory with song until spring. So suddenly, it appears there are twice as many Robins as there had been when they were nesting, when only the males sang. The Rooks were also noisy around their rookeries, telling each other that this was where they would nest next year. Bushes covered with Ivy, were a magnet for insects: the air humming with wasps, hoverflies and Ivy Bees busily drinking nectar or collecting the late bounty of pollen from the flowers. On the Common, mauve heads of Devil’s-bit Scabious were a welcome reminder that summer was not quite over, while autumnal bushes of Hawthorn hung heavy with bright red berries, waiting for the winter thrushes to arrive and disperse their seeds. By the end of this month Continental Blackbirds and Scandinavian Redwing should begin to pour across the North Sea in their thousands, seeking refuge from the falling temperatures on the continent and needing a plentiful supply of berries to sustain them when they arrive. Migrants often make landfall on Norfolk’s north coast, especially at Blakeney Point. When we walked to the Point in mid-September, we were hoping for migrating birds, instead we found rare migrant moths! There had been a light easterly breeze the evening before which must have wafted them across the North Sea, as in three places along the shingle bank we found Marbled Beauty moths. They are only one centimetre long, white with magenta tracery and a pale yellow collar making them very difficult to spot when resting on Rock Sea-Lavender plants, the stalks of which are also mauve. They were first recorded in Britain in 2004, in Dorset, but now a few are recorded occasionally in Norfolk in September: they were certainly a first for us and a very welcome surprise at a difficult time. When raking hay in the churchyard in early October, we disturbed another dainty moth, which when it settled, we could see had pale yellowy-beige forewings with a bright pink oblique stripe across each. This was a Vestal, another migrant moth new to us which just goes to show that being alert to the wildlife around us can turn up interesting species, even in Reepham.
Do let me know if you see any interesting wildlife (rachel.42rr@btinternet.com)
