Send us your wildlife sightings

Why send us your scarlet waxcap sightings?

Fungi are notoriously hard to identify, there are so many species and to the untrained eye may be misidentified. The scarlet waxcap is one of the easier ones to identify – although be careful not to confuse it with the crimson waxcap. Waxcaps grow on nutrient poor grassland, old lawns, parks, churchyards and woodland clearings. They are indicator of unimproved grassland which can be a valuable habitat for many plant species.

Why do we want your waxwing sightings?

This iconic winter bird is a welcome visitor to the Norfolk. They may be seen in winter feeding on berries especially hawthorn and rowan but also cotoneaster and rose hips. They can also be seen on hedgerows and woodland with a good supply of berries.

Waxwings are winter visitors and most years only about 1,000 birds arrive although in some years they appear in greater numbers, called irruptions, and it is when their numbers get too large for the breeding grounds. They arrive between October and November and stay until April when they return to their breeding grounds in Northern Europe. Waxwings are not of conservation concern, but where they are seen indicates areas rich in food and it is important that the food plants that they depend on are protected.

Why do we want your rabbit sightings?

Rabbits are under-recorded in Norfolk. We may feel that they are a common species, but we don’t actually know their distribution within the county. There are a number of diseases impacting on rabbit populations so knowing where they can be found in Norfolk can help us monitor their health in the long run.

Scarlet waxcap

• Another name for scarlet waxcap is scarlet hood.
• Waxcaps are often described as the orchids of the fungi world because of their bright colours.
• The UK is home to around 50 species of waxcap.
• The fruiting body, the mushroom, is only a small part of the fungus that grows underground. It is often described as being like the ‘apple on the apple tree’.
• Fungi belong to their own kingdom; they are neither plants nor animals. The hugely diverse organisms can be considered closer to animals than plants.

Waxwing

• Winter movements of waxwings are dependent on the amount of food available on the other side of the North Sea, because of this the UK can receive anything from a few dozen individuals to as many as 12,000 each year.
• Waxwings are often seen in urban areas such as supermarket car parks where ornamental berry-bearing shrubs are planted.
• A waxwing in the winter will typically eat 800-1000 berries a day, roughly twice their body weight!
• Waxwings get their name from the long glossy red tips – wax-like - to the feather shafts in the middle of their wings.

Rabbit

• A young rabbit is called a kit or a kitten.
• Rabbits can turn their ears 180 degrees.
• The decline of heathland habitat can be linked to the introduction of Myxomatosis.
• The does give birth away from the main colony and dig short tunnels to provide cover and shelter for their young. They breed from February to September and can have as many as eight litters in a season, with an average of six kittens in a litter. The young are completely independent at six weeks and can begin to breed at four to six months old.
• During the medieval period, adult rabbits were known as “coneys”; only the young were called “rabbetts”.