Norfolk Natterjack

As we travel around Norfolk, we spot the occasional rookery in the tall trees beside the road. Occasional? Last year Malcolm Metcalf conducted a survey with the aid of many Eastern Daily Press readers across the county. He was, as he writes in the latest issue of Natterjack, No. 115, "inundated by the response". The result: a final nest total of 4,122 at 122 sites, ranging in size from 159 at Griston Park to two at Tibbenham. Malcolm's detailed list is accompanied by a distribution map showing a heavy concentration in East Norfolk, perhaps accounted for by the fact that Great Yarmouth Naturalists took an active part in the census.

The usual answer to the question "How do hedgehogs mate?" - "Carefully!" - is now less of a mystery for George Carrick. A pair very obligingly mated in full view in his garden and seemed quite oblivious to the flashgun as he photographed them during their lengthy courtship and copulation. George's photographs are among the many excellent pictures in Nats' Gallery.

The Blandford Fly is a particularly vicious insect, whose bites have killed. Has it arrived in Norfolk? Colin Jacobs writes that, from the evidence he has gathered, "there are certainly some nasty flies in Norfolk that could until proven otherwise be the Blandford Fly - and why is it only women who suffer such severe bites and wounds?"

Hans Watson writes about the growing number of Chinese water deer in Norfolk. They look "timid, inoffensive and Bambi-like" but there are reports from Bedfordshire that they have attacked dogs and wounded them badly with their fangs. Not quite so Bambi-like!

All this and more - and if you join the Society you will get four free copies of Natterjack each year.

As usual, Nats’ Gallery displays a wide range of excellent photographs by Society members.

Back issues

The following back issues of Natterjack are available for download: