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James Emerson

@norwichbirder.bsky.social

1.4K followers 740 following 990 posts

Naturalist living in Norfolk (UK) - particularly interested in birds, fungi, psyllids and shieldbugs (also real ale, Forteana etc) Local patch = Whitlingham C.P. and the wider Norwich area. Sporadically updated blog: http://jamesbirdsandbeer.blogspot.com/

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James Emerson @norwichbirder.bsky.social · Jan 16

I've just finished putting together my local patch bird report, covering species seen at Whitlingham & Thorpe Marshes (Norwich) during 2024. It can be downloaded here: drive.google.com/file/d/13pLp... A big thank you to everyone who has reported sightings and allowed photos to be used in the report.

This is the front cover of a local bird report. The backgrouns is a pale purple, and in the centre is a landscape photo showing a flooded path with a bench on the foreground and a bare tree at the back. The text reads "The Birds of Whitlingham & Thorpe 2024" at the top and "Compiled by James Emerson" below the photo.

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Reposted by James Emerson

Lukas Large @lukaslarge.bsky.social · 10h

Nice to spot these Slate Boletes - Leccinum duriusculum on a foray at Park Lime Pits, Walsall with @froglife.bsky.social

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James Emerson @norwichbirder.bsky.social · 4h

I've only seen it once before, at Train Wood roughly level with Wensum Park about five years ago. Even today, I checked a lot of willows, but only found it on one tree (Tuberolachnus salignus was on at least six).

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James Emerson @norwichbirder.bsky.social · 4h

Something else found on willows at Whitlingham today was this Marbled Orb-weaver, Araneus marmoreus var. pyramidatus (srs.britishspiders.org.uk/portal.php/p...). Very noticeable against green leaves, but you can see how it might blend in once the leaves start to yellow in autumn.

A spider with a round yellow abdomen with a brown area near the back. The legs are banded dark brown and white. It is resting on the underside of some willow leaves, with a yellowed willow leaf to the left of the picture.

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Rob Yaxley @robyaxley.bsky.social · 5h

From Marsham Heath yesterday, this looks to be Absconditella delutula, a tiny lichen that was found on a piece of dead wood. The spores are divided (1-septate) and the disc is pale and waxy-looking. First county record!

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James Emerson @norwichbirder.bsky.social · 5h

The other willow stem aphid that I found at Whitlingham today was Large Waxy Willow Aphid Plocamaphis flocculosa (influentialpoints.com/Gallery/Ploc...). When packed together in a group they are tricky to see, particularly the young ones that don't have strong spotting. Single adults stand out more.

A Willow stem covered in waxy aphids, appearing as a single waxy mass.

A close up of a section of the stem from the first photo showing a mass of waxy aphids.

A green willow stem with a waxy aphid climbing up. Two rows of black spots are visible on its back.

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James Emerson @norwichbirder.bsky.social · 5h

Whilst carrying out my WeBS count at Whitlingham today, I spot-checked lots of willows, hoping to find one of the Chaitophorus aphids that I've not seen yet. The most numerous aphid found were these ones, Giant Willow Aphid, Tuberolachnus salignus influentialpoints.com/Gallery/Tube...

A large winged aphid resting on a thin green willow stem. The aphidis pale grey, spotted with black.

Aphids on a green willow stem. In the centre is a large grey aphid with black spotting. To the rightare lots of small reddish-brown nymphs.

A cluster of black-spotted, grey aphids along a yellowy-green stem.

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Rob Edmunds @vc28wildlife.bsky.social · 9h

Some miners from the Norfolk Brecks today. Phyllonorycter comparella and Phyllocnistis xenia on White Poplar. Ectoedemia hannoverella on Black Poplar. Coleophora argentula on Yarrow 1/2

Phyllonorycter comparella - two mines in this leaf as pale green yellow areas. Also the snail trail mines of Phyllocnistis xenia

Ectoedemia hannoverella mine in green island

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Norfolk & Norwich Naturalists' Society @norfolknats.bsky.social · 14h

A reminder that Norfolk county gall recorder Anne Hickley is leading an NNNS walk looking at plant galls at Thompson Common tomorrow (Sunday 25th October 2025). Free, all welcome. For meeting details see norfolknaturalists.org.uk/wp/events-pa...

Two oak galls, made up of pale green twisted rods emendation from a central base. Darker green Oak leaves are behind them.

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Reposted by James Emerson

BSBI Botany @bsbibotany.bsky.social · 1d

Are you, like @nicolaann85.bsky.social, looking at Mulleins & wishing you had some #WildflowerID help?
Ideally a great webinar from somebody like @anaturalistabroad.bsky.social, who really knows his Mulleins? With an intro by @sjthomasbotany.bsky.social?
Here you go:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjaG...

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Reposted by James Emerson

BSBI Botany @bsbibotany.bsky.social · 1d

Want to up your #WildFlowerID game this winter?
We just launched our Winter Webinar programme!
7-8pm, every Tuesday from 4 Nov - 10 Feb.
Thanks to funding from @daera-ni.gov.uk, these 10 great plant ID webinars are FREE for all of you to attend!
Programme & booking links: bsbi.org/botanical-sk...

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Fortean Times @forteantimes.bsky.social · 1d

Saturday 18 Oct, 6.30pm: The Woodwoses and Wildmen of Suffolk. FT regular Matt Salusbury investigates Suffolk's wildmen in an online event. Please email [email protected] and get your free ticket at on our Eventbrite page!
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-woodwo...

The Woodwoses and Wildmen of Suffolk

An online talk by Matt Salusbury onSuffolk's strange woodwose figures.

www.eventbrite.co.uk

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@s4r4h-l @s4r4h-l.bsky.social · 1d

#FungiFriday from yesterday, black bulgar, young honey fungus, a corker of a redlead roundhead, turkey tail, dead mens fingers, gorgeous grey milk cap, the Sickener, shaggy inkcaps,wood ear and snowy waxcaps. #mushrooms #fungi #Lancashire #vitaminN

Top row; black bulgar, young honey fungus, 2nd row; a corker of a redlead roundhead, turkey tail, dead mens fingers,
3rd row gorgeous grey milk cap showing the milk drops on the gills,
Bottom row ; the Sickener, shaggy inkcaps,wood ear and snowy waxcaps.

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Jeremy Bartlett @jeremybartlett.bsky.social · 2d

Penny Bun, Boletus edulis.

In woods near Reepham, Norfolk, today, visited on today's bike ride.

Boletus edulis, Cep, Penny Bun Bolete mushroom share.google/Anbg2ckhpJbf...

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Lizzie Harper Illustrator @lizzie-harper.bsky.social · 2d

Had a excellent weekend painting a #botanicalillustration of a penny bun #boletus edulis #Fungi & a Rosy button one, and chatting to Fungitown visitors in Hay. My mate filmed me at work in a borrowed (appropriately themed) shirt. #sciart

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Reposted by James Emerson

Jeremy Bartlett @jeremybartlett.bsky.social · 3d

The beautifully shaggy Echinoderma calcicola.

Found in a damp woodland on rich calcareous soil in West Norfolk.

First Norfolk record since 1920.

Had a slightly fruity smell. White spores.

I'm drying a fruitbody for verification by our group's DNA team.

#Fungi #FungiFriends

Echinoderma calcicola - cheilocystidia stained in Congo red, x1000.

Echinoderma calcicola. Spores, stained with Meltzer's reagent, x1000.

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Sarah Lambert @sarahlambert7.bsky.social · 3d

Midweek grassland #fungi treat at @wildlifebcn.org Old Sulehay NR - Limestone Waxcap, Mousepee Pinkgill, Persistent Waxcap and Blackening Waxcap. So many in Stonepit Close (a former limestone quarry) this year, especially Persistent Waxcap...

#fungifriends

Three red Limestone Waxcaps snuggled on a mossy bed

The charismatic Mousepee Pinkgill (with a Persistent Waxcap in the background)

Young Blackening Waxcap emerging from a carpet of Bendy Ditrichum Flexitrichum flexicaule

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James Emerson @norwichbirder.bsky.social · 3d

Treated here as synonyms - Index Fungorum lists Pluteus chrysophaeus as the ‘current’ name www.speciesfungorum.org/GSD/GSDspeci... but see also the discussion here www.inaturalist.org/posts/87000-...

Species Fungorum - GSD Species

www.speciesfungorum.org

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Ken T @velociraptor500.bsky.social · 3d

A few more fungi found at Felbrigg NT at the weekend.

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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 3d

Not seen this one before #FungiFriends, think it’s Green Brittlegill, Russula aeruginia, found beneath Silver Birch. Caps of the mature specimens were very green, younger ones were paler. Stipe chalk white & tapering at base, gills white & crowded. Such a pretty mushroom 💚
#FungiFriday

Photos of green-capped mushrooms beneath Silver Birch trees. I’ve not seen a Brittlegill with a green cap before! The young specimens were pale minty green deepening to a darker moss/olive green in the more mature examples.

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British Mycological Society @britmycolsoc.org.uk · 3d

The #UKFungusDay celebrations are not over yet! 🍄 Events still to come include Wandering for Waxcaps at Merry's Meadows, and Wheatfen Fungi Foray at Rutland Water.
👉 Take a look at the list: www.ukfungusday.co.uk/whatson

Yellow-colour Waxcap - credit: Vaughn Matthews / Leicestershire & Rutland Wildlife Trust

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James Emerson @norwichbirder.bsky.social · 4d

An excuse to post an old photo of mine of Trooping Funnels showing the proportions (tall stipe:cap) but also the impressive 'trooping'.

A line of beige fungi with tall thick stipes and relatively small caps. They are growing up amongst moss and Ground Ivy leaves.

Reposted by James Emerson

Biodiversity Heritage Library @biodivlibrary.bsky.social · 4d

Did you know that BHL has #FullTextSearch? You can search for scientific names, places, etc, but you can also find all the things that "Alfred Russell Wallace" found "delicious" in his travels (search for "delicious" and then narrow search results by author). #ILoveBHL www.biodiversitylibrary.org 🧪

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Surprised Eel Historian, PhD @greenleejw.bsky.social · 5d

Friends, with the world on fire, it feels useless to be here selling my services. But I do need to keep the lights on, and the #maps pay the bills.

So...if you need a map(s) for a book project, let me know! I have space for new commissions.

Here are a few of my favorite maps I've done lately:
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Grayscale map of the Atlantic showing most of the Americas, Europe, and Africa. There are arrows showing the direction of trade, and each arrow has at least one number attached to it. The numbers match a key on the side that lists the products being traded and their place of origin. There are 15 different sets of commodities listed:
1:Midlands & Birmingham: Guns, Gunpowder, Metalware, Silks
2: Liverpool & Lancashire: Cotton-linens
3: Lancashire: Linens, Cottons, Cotton-linens
4: India: Cottons Cowries
5: Midlands & London: Metalware, Silks, Ceramics, Glassware, Guns
6: London & Glasgow: Credit, Shipping Insurance
7: New England: Beef & Pork, Fish, Rum, Wood, Whale products
8: Mid-Atlantic: Grain
9: Chesapeake Colonies: Tobacco
10: Carolinas, Rice, Indigo
11: Caribbean: Sugar, Molasses
12: Brazil: Coffee
13: Brazil: Gold
14: Mexico / Peru: Silver
15: Britain: Grain, Manufactures

The map has a set of grey arrows going from West Africa to the Americas showing the number of enslaved workers transported. The arrows are sized relative to the numbers. The largest arrow shows 6 million enslaved workers going to the Caribbean. 3.5 million went to Africa, 650,000 to the Spanish colonies in Central and South America, and 400,000 to North America.

A key in the bottom right lists a set of African kingdoms that participated in the selling of enslaved workers, including Benin, the Oyo Empire, Dahomey, the Ashanti Confederacy, the Kingdom of Allada, the Kingdom of Whydah, and the Nupe people. These kingdoms are outlined on the map.

Greyscale drawing of a floor plan of what looks like the first floor of a house, with ten rooms and a flight of stairs. The title at the bottom reads: "The Magic Bookshop." There are two exterior doors: a front door and a back door. The floor plan is on a tattered piece of paper that looks as if it is being unrolled from the top, so there is a curl of paper, or a scroll, at the bottom. Around the floor plan are four animals. A cat, labeled Angel, is resting on top of floor plan, dangling a paw down. To her left is a huntsman spider named Drusilla. At the bottom of the page on the left is a golden retriever named Willow, sitting behind the scroll like a good boy. On the right side is a cat named Spike, who is sitting on top of the scroll and crushing it like an jerk. Typical dog and cat stuff. There are four piles of books around the outside of the floor plan: two large, and two small

From top left down in a switchback pattern, the rooms are labeled:
Yellow: Books with gold covers
Possibility: Mystery, Crime (where they do the spell)
Exeunt Omnes: Older books (where Kennedy finds the magic book)
The Office (where hazel makes tea)
Bathroom
Gurgler: Sci-fi, Fantasy (where Hazel goes to hide out)
The Scriptorium: More modern books (where Hazel sends Luke to find a book for his niece)
Taboo
The Fishbowl: Romance (where Luke makes a pink and purple bookcase)
Pooh Corner: Children, Young adult (where Bob has his armchair and the silent book club happens)

A label in the central hallway reads: "(where they put a bookcase for Today's Donations). Another label on the stairs reads "Hazel's loft apartment" and there is an arrow pointing up the stairs.

Art. A greyscale map of southern Africa showing different biomes. The map map key indicates 7 different biomes: Succulent Karoo; Fynbos; Albany Thicket; India Ocean Coastal Belt; Mixed Woodland; Grassland; Nama-Karoo; and Kalahari Savanna. Each is represented on the may by a different shade of grey, with areas of more rainfall being darker, and areas of less rainfall being lighter. Several of the rivers are labeled, as is the Indian Ocean.

Art. Colored map showing the locations of Alderely Edge, done in a fantasy style. The map is drawn to look like an old map done on parchment, with torn edges curling up. Two bars with ribbons wrapped around them form a frame at the top and right sides of the map. The ribbon on top is blue, the one on the right is a dusty red. On the right side of the map, between the frame and the edge, the map is colored turquoise and does not show any land forms. Written in large vertical letters in this space is the maps' title: "The Edge".

The main part of the map is cut with forests and cliffs, and has 13 locations noted. Each location name is in a small frame that looks like a torn piece of parchment. Two roads cut across the map, one labeled Macclesfield Road and the other labeled Artists Lane. They meet in the bottom 3rd of the map by a location called "The Wizard Tearoom." An arrow at the top left points up one of the roads and has a label reading "to Alderely Edge (village). An arrow a the other end of the road, at the bottom of th emap, reads: "To Macclesfield."

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Reposted by James Emerson

Richard Wilson @ecology-digest.bsky.social · 5d

#Arachtober is a good month to remind folk my book #SpidersAndHarvestmenOfYorkshire by @naturebureau.bsky.social ought to be available to purchase by the end of the month.

It’s not too late to get a pre-publication offer here: www.naturebureau.co.uk/spiders-harv...

@britishspiders.bsky.social

Spiders & Harvestmen of Yorkshire – An Atlas naturebureau.co.uk

NatureBureau - one company, two passions. NatureBureau is a design and ecological consultancy, established more than 30 years ago. We combine ecological expertise with a distinctive style in graphic d...

www.naturebureau.co.uk

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Reposted by James Emerson

Chris Darby @chrisddarby.bsky.social · 5d

Red-tailed shrike
Dunwich, Suffolk, 05/10/2025
"Showing well"
@suffolkbirdgroup.bsky.social #suffolkbirding #birds

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