Remember a Charity Week

Nick Acheson, NWT Volunteer

At Norfolk Wildlife Trust we love life. We love wildlife and we love human life. Our nature reserves protect thousands of species of life – most of the terrestrial and freshwater species found in Norfolk – from the merest bacteria to extravagantly beautiful great crested grebes quivering their bronze-and-black crests in display in the Broads. In addition, we work with human life, meeting thousands of people each year – landowners, families, teachers and children – to enrich their lives, inspire them to love nature, and encourage them to protect wildlife in the future.

NWT Lower Wood, Ashwellthorpe, photo by Richard Osbourne

 

Do you too love life in Norfolk? Do you smile at the peacock and red admiral butterflies sunning themselves in your garden? Do you make an annual pilgrimage to watch hares boxing in a spring field? Does your heart skip a beat as you come across a barn owl floating ghostly over a misty water-meadow? Do tears come to your eyes as you hear a nightingale pouring his soul into a warm May evening on a North Norfolk heath?

If, like us, you love wildlife in Norfolk, you have the opportunity to celebrate it, and support us in our work to protect it and enhance our human relationship with it, by leaving us a legacy in your will. Remember a Charity in Your Will Week, which runs from 9 to 15 September 2013, is an annual event aimed at encouraging people to leave legacies to charities in their wills, once their loved ones have been provided for.

For Norfolk Wildlife Trust, as for charities all over the UK, legacies are vital. With your legacies Norfolk Wildlife Trust buys new nature reserve and sets in place the plans needed to protect them and enhance them for wildlife and for future generations of Norfolk people. With your legacies Norfolk Wildlife Trust takes school children to its nature reserves, allowing them to build a relationship with wildlife, for the rest of their lives and their own children’s lives. It repairs hides and builds boardwalks, the better to allow access to reserves; it puts up boxes for bats, makes ponds for natterjacks, and erects platforms in the hope that ospreys will return to Norfolk to breed. A legacy to Norfolk Wildlife Trust is a promise to the future of Norfolk’s wildlife and of Norfolk’s human life.

So this September, as summer’s end is foretold by the wind gossiping in the reeds at Cley, by the thousand thousand birch seeds spinning over the heath at Buxton, and by the gathering of the marsh harriers at their winter roost at Stubb Mill, pause for a moment to look and to breathe. As you look, as you breathe, reflect on the beauty of the wildlife which shares our Norfolk with us and, if so moved, please consider leaving a legacy in your will which will help Norfolk Wildlife Trust to protect it.

For our part, we promise to use your legacies to look after Norfolk’s wild habitats, now and in the future – through spring’s birth and autumn’s end, and through the annual comings and goings of the birds – so that they may be enjoyed forever by Norfolk’s wildlife and by Norfolk’s people.

Please read more about legacies and Norfolk Wildlife Trust

Fascinating fungi

Tony Leech, NWT Trustee and County Fungus Recorder

Bulbous Bonnet Mycena stylobates growing on a pine twig shows
that small can be beautiful. Photo: Tony Leech

Forays are oversubscribed; TV chefs extol their virtues and field guides (some of them good) proliferate. In the past, fungi have either been feared or ignored, but at last they have come out of the closet and as you get to know them they reveal themselves as amazingly beautiful and wonderfully interesting. The ephemeral nature of most, and their apparently magical appearance in unexpected places, only adds to the fascination. But the ‘magic’ arises simply because we cannot see the bulk of the fungus which is a mass of thread-like hyphae, each much thinner than a human hair, branching through the humus, wood or dung etc. on which the fungus is feeding. The part of the fungus we do see is just the ‘fruiting body’, which, like the fruit on a tree, produces and releases the agents of dispersal.
 

Dune Waxcap Hygrocybe conicoides is one of about 30 fleshy
fungi found only on sand dunes. Photo: Tony Leech

With over 10,000 species recorded in Britain, the diversity of form and colour surprises the beginner and delights the more experienced mycologist. As well as toadstools, there are brackets, cups, stars, balls, spindles, crusts, rusts and smuts (even I have to admit that not all fungi are beautiful!). Nearly 3500 species have been found in Norfolk which has a long history of fungus-recording; by 1884, Charles Plowright had listed 1500 species. From the early 1930s until the mid-1980s, Ted Ellis added many more, especially microfungi growing on plants, and in 1976, Reg and Lil Evans returned to the county and spent the next 25 years assiduously recording fungal distributions. Since 2001, members of the Norfolk Fungus Study Group have carried on the work, and over 250 species have been added to the County list in the past ten years.
 

Devil’s Claw Clathrus archeri, an Australasian fungus that has become
naturalised in a few places in Britain. Photo: Tony Leech

For many, the first step in getting to know the fungal world is an autumn foray. Fungus forays are fun!  Adults and children alike enjoy them but, in my opinion, a successful foray is one where the expectations of participants have been transformed from harvesting a basketful of good edibles (rarely possible in this country) to the excitement of finding different kinds – as many as 100 species on a good autumn day. 

To identify a fungus it is almost always necessary to pick it. Should this concern us? Not really, for we are only picking the ‘fruit’ and it will probably already have released literally millions of spores. But whilst collecting a few fruiting bodies for identification or the pot is may not be considered a conservation issue, collecting large numbers for commercial purposes probably is.

Scarlet Elfcup Sarcoscypha austriaca, a cup fungus that adds a
splash of colour to a wet wood in early spring. Photo: Tony Leech

Since colour and form are the most obvious features you will first be drawn to matching your specimen with a picture in the field guide. To avoid frustration it is essential that your field guide illustrates a large number of species; both Mushrooms* by Roger Phillips and the Collin’s Guide* by Paul Sterry and Barry Hughes manage this. Because fungi can be variable in form, and sometimes in colour, the big difficulty is knowing whether your specimen falls within the range of variation for a particular species and the virtue of Phillip’s book is that for most species he illustrates a range of specimens, showing undersides and stem details. The photographs in Sterry’s book, however, are of specimens in natural surroundings and their stunningly high standard is more likely to trigger recognition.  You might need both!

 

Weather Earthstar Geastrum corollinum. One of the rarer of the earthstars, the outer
skin of which splits and curves back to elevate the spore-sac. Photo: Dave Leech

The superficial appearance of your fungus may take you to the right part of the book but now you must look for clues and check them against the descriptions. Does it have gills?  What colour are they and how far apart? There are as many clues on the stem (if it has one): colour and texture; presence of a ring and shape of the base (make sure you pick the whole fungus).  Add to all these the habitat, smell and whether the fungus is clustered or growing singly and you should be getting somewhere. But from here on things can get trickier. Critical identification generally requires the use of a microscope and access to specialist literature. However, microscopes are no more expensive than the telescopes which many birders possess.
 

Cobalt Crust Terana caerulea. A rare but distinctive encrusting fungus on wood
which rapidly loses its intense colour. Photo: Jeremy Bagnall-Oakeley

Fungi have the reputation of being difficult to identify; they can be, but so can almost any group of organisms. Don’t try to identify everything you find; select a few specimens in good condition and look at them carefully. Don’t be daunted; count your successes not your failures and, slowly at first, then faster, your list will grow.

*Phillips, R. Mushrooms. 2006, Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-330-44237-0
Sterry, P. & Hughes, B. Collins Complete Guide to Mushrooms and Toadstools. 2009, Collins. ISBN 978-0-00-723224-6

Encountering adders

Jessica Riederer, Seasonal Education Officer

If you are reading this, you must be inspired by wildlife in some way. Maybe you spend your days off like I do, wandering about Norfolk’s varied landscapes seeing what you can discover. I have spent most of the summer exploring Norfolk’s wetlands where I have been completely absorbed by dragonflies - their iridescent colours and the quick hum of their wings, the way they patrol the hedges and pond surfaces scooping up insects and chasing away intruders, the way some species – especially the Emperor, will zoom over, stopping to hover a foot away from your face, moving their powerful bulky bodies back and forth to get a closer look before zooming off to continue with their day. Dragonflies make me incredibly happy.  This weekend though, I was ready for another encounter. This weekend I was searching for adders.

I had not seen an adder since the spring. Cool, sunny, spring mornings are the best time to see them, as being coldblooded, they need to bask before hunting or searching for a mate. During the summer there is less need for them to bask and this makes seeing them less likely. But as we creep through August, blackberries are ripening, migrants are leaving England, and as much as I hate to admit it, there is now – more than occasionally - a bit of a nip in the air. In a month, adders will be looking to hibernate, so now could be a good time to look for them.
 

Lizard, photo by Jessica Riederer

On Friday, one of our volunteers, Kirsty Bailey suggested I visit Buxton Heath, a reserve I was unfamiliar with. When she informed me that a healthy population of reptiles – grass snakes, slow worms and adders could all be found there – and that the reserve was generally quite quiet, I knew this was the place for me. On Sunday morning I arrived at Buxton Heath just as the clouds were clearing and the sun’s rays were beginning to touch the heather that stretched across the reserve. It was just gorgeous. As I began to walk, I immediately started to search places I knew adders would be, and my best luck finding adders has always been amongst dead bracken. 

Adder, photo by Jessica Riederer

Anywhere bracken was piled amongst the heather, I would stop a few meters away and let my eyes skip, hop and glide back and forth and up and down over the piles. The dead bracken leaves are the same colours and make the same patterns as the diamond pattern on an adder’s back, and this is the reason they are so beautifully camouflaged amongst it. It was the perfect adder morning and I knew they were there, but as the first 45 minutes passed and I was still not seeing anything, I could feel my patience (and confidence) waning. I was quiet as could be, literally taking one step every minute, scanning and looking. Eventually, I saw a small, well camouflaged lizard and this boosted my confidence, and as I watched him flitting about I decided that if I could spot a lizard, I would spot a snake. It was then that I located my first adder, about ten feet away, curled up in the middle of a bracken pile. He was incredibly camouflaged and even though I knew I was looking at an adder, it was almost as if my eyes did not want to believe it as I had been looking for so long.
 

Adder, photo by Jessica Riederer

Oh the joy! What a gorgeous snake. This was one of the lightest adders I had ever seen, and not yet full grown. I slowly inched my way closer, got a few photos and then just stopped and watched him (her?). In a few seconds, his tongue flicked as he detected my presence and he slid oh so quietly back into his bracken home. I was blessed with two more adders on that lovely morning. One was tiny and spotted me before I spotted him, so I just saw his tail disappearing, but the other one was basking. This adder was much larger and much darker in colour - even her red eyes were almost black. This time, after observing her for a bit, I backed up and moved away before she detected me and so she was left basking in the late August sun.

I spent four hours at beautiful Buxton on Sunday and I look forward to my next visit. If you think your wildlife spotting skills are pretty good and would like a challenge and a reason to really slow down, head to one of our heathland reserves, such as Roydon Common or Buxton Heath and see if you can spot an adder. Please remember that adders are venomous so give them a bit of distance. Heading out with a group of people will probably not help you to find one – nor will your dog! If you have keen eyesight, patience and are light footed, you might be rewarded! Most importantly, please remember to keep your eyes and ears out for all the other splendours of the heath!

Buxton Heath is managed by Norfolk Wildlife Trust in partnership with the owners,  Hevingham Fuel Allotment Charity.

More wildlife caught on remote cameras at Fens wetland sites

Nick Carter, Conservation Officer (Fens)

Six remote cameras were set up at the Wissey Wetland, near to the Wissington Sugar Factory, by Arnie & Rosemarie Cooke, during July to record wildlife usage at the site. The advantage of the cameras is that they give a 24 hour, seven days a week surveillance of an area. Five of the cameras were set to record videos and one to take photos. Some of the results of the latter, set up on the edge of a wood overlooking a ditch, are shown here.

Red deer was the commonest species caught on camera with the picture showing a hind and two fawns in the ditch. Red deer were filmed day and night crossing the ditch but were most frequently seen in the early morning and evening up to midnight. Muntjac were also commonly caught on camera. The shot of a very young muntjac fawn swimming across the ditch may be unique. Both red and muntjac deer were more commonly recorded than in February. 

Grey heron (there is a small heronry close to the wetland) was the commonest bird filmed and there were several shots along this ditch. This shot is unusual in that it shows two mallard in the ditch with the heron. 

Other species videoed included an otter on the River Wissey hunting in the shallows at night time. Roe deer, fox, badger and brown hare were videoed but only occasionally. Other more unusual birds filmed included green sandpiper and little egret. The cameras add to our knowledge of the species on the site and how this changes as the site develops.

In order to raise local awareness of the site we (volunteers Alison, Ann, Bob & Ann; and staff Bethan and Nick) attended the Hilgay Show, 10-11 August 2013. New local contacts were made and the kids had a great time making dragonflies and learning about wetland species. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive with just one element of criticism concerning the loss of farmland to nature.

Purple haze

Chris Durdin, NWT Thorpe Marshes

“When I am an old I shall wear purple,” is an opening line to a poem that came to mind visiting NWT Thorpe Marshes in August. Looking up the poem, I found it actually says “When I am an old woman I shall wear purple,” but you get the idea.

Purple loosestrife with red-tailed bumbleebee and hoverfly

The ungrazed marsh at NWT Thorpe Marshes is at its most colourful best this time of year, and is dominated by purple and pink. Spires of purple loosestrife are the most obvious, but there’s a supporting purple cast of marsh woundwort, water mint and red bartsia, which is purplish, despite its name. The boldest pink is hemp agrimony and there is willowherb in profusion.

Upright hedge parsley bristles

A favourite of mine is the subtle pinky-purple of the hooked seedpods of the umbellifer upright hedge parsley. These need magnifying to appreciate, and a close-up photo is one way. Another is a hand lens, for which I find looking through the wrong end of binoculars is a good substitute.

Three in a row: peacock, comma and painted lady

There’s another purple flower which can’t be ignored – buddleia, the butterfly bush. The down side is that it’s an invasive alien and is all too common in the scrub that invades ungrazed areas of the reserve. But the butterflies on the big buddleias by the public footpath at the start of the reserve have been a delight this summer. With up to 100 peacocks among some 10 butterfly species, buddleia has been in the forefront of this summer’s line-up of purple plants.

#MyCley

Barry Madden, Volunteer Bird Guide at NWT Cley Marshes

So why would you fall in love with a particular place? What makes it so special? Why must it be cherished and looked after? 

Well, the answers to these questions and many others will be available for all to see and hear at the Forum in Norwich next month. Between 16 and 28 September there will be an opportunity to experience some of the sights and sounds of NWT Cley Marshes at a special exhibition in the Fusion Digital Gallery. A representative of the Forum Trust was at the site last week filming people to record their input for what promises to be a very evocative and interesting event. As I watched, I wondered how I would answer the question ‘Why is Cley so special?’

Curlews, photo by Barry Madden

It could be the amazing wildlife that abounds everywhere you look. Take today, when every patch of wild flowers had scores of bees collecting pollen, colourful butterflies and beetles probing for nectar whilst dragonflies darted through the air above hunting small flying insects or defending their territories. I was lucky enough to catch sight of a migrant clouded yellow butterfly as it purposefully flitted past me and parties of migrant whimbrel, curlew and sandpipers whistled, piped and trilled their way across a perfect blue summer sky.

It could indeed be those wide, open Norfolk skies that excite; dwarfing you and making you feel quite humble whilst amplifying the sense of space and light. Powerful cloudscapes frequently add a sense of drama, before multi-hued sunsets serve to soften the landscape and bring calm to a stormy day. Gentle breezes murmuring through the reed beds can have a soporific effect, but northerly gales churn the cruel North Sea into a multi-coloured maelstrom. Through it all the wildlife and people endure. No two days are the same.

Cley Beach in summer, photo by Barry Madden

And then there are the people. From hardy fishermen bobbing around on their tiny boats to winter reed cutters, from the groups of young students studying coastal erosion to the entrepreneurial guy who sets up his mobile café from the back of his van - all are woven into the fabric of this wild place. There are farmers, wildfowlers, birdwatchers, dog walkers, sun bathers, ramblers, photographers, shopkeepers, artists, and ice cream sellers. All have their part to play in this intricately entwined Living Landscape. And there is room for all; room for wildlife and people to flourish as long as the sanctity of the entire ecosystem is respected.

But personally I think it is the amalgam of all these things that makes Cley Marshes so special. It is only 20 or so miles from a large city, but take an early morning walk along the beach and you are a world away from all that hustle and bustle. Luckily it’s going to get better for both people and wildlife. Norfolk Wildlife Trust has great vision for the future of the site with both the acquisition of Pope’s Marsh, significantly extending the area under direct conservation management, and the development of the Visitor Centre to include a wonderful educational facility. These plans are still subject to securing the appropriate funding and planning approvals, but should they come to fruition will greatly enhance the Cley experience. 

So, why not pop along to the Forum next month and experience something of the magic for yourself. The event is free and will be most informative. Better still pay a visit to the reserve and immerse yourself in the sights and sounds of one of the best of Norfolk’s wildlife experiences.