Feed me...

I took Pete and Chris to Wolferton today to do some survey work on a ditch and saltmarsh round the pumping station. While they toiled, I watched the many fledgling swallows that were sitting on the structures, waiting to be fed by their industrious parents. Despite the rather bleak location, especially under grey skies with a fresh wind, there was quite a bit of wildlife around, including a kingfisher and a barn owl, that was roosting in a derelict boat, now high and dry on the marsh.

The survey area was quite small and they'd finished by lunchtime, which was just as well as it started to rain. We ate lunch in the car and then headed to nearby Dersingham Bog NNR, which includes the largest, most intact example of an acid valley mire in East Anglia. It is also one of the last remaining fragments of lowland heathland in south east England.


Despite the rain, we decided to have a walk round, and before long it eased off, though it remained surprisingly cool, with not even a glimpse of the sun. Nevertheless we enjoyed investigating the mire, with its sheets of sphagnum moss and cross-leaved heath, brightened by the sticky leaves of sundews and the shiny red globes of the cranberries (see extras). Even though the weather wasn't good, we managed to find a few black darters, and Chris saw a keeled skimmer.


Back at the car-park, we found that the invasive rhododendrons were home to a brilliantly coloured leaf-hopper, Graphocephala fennahi (see extras). This large and striking species is native to the USA, where it is known as the scarlet and green leafhopper. It was introduced to Europe in the early 1900s, and can now be found widely in southern Britain, though this is the first time that I've seen them. Both adults and larvae feed on Rhododendron sap, and it is one of the few insects to use this shrub as a foodplant.