Wildlife

James Lowen

I was prepared for Snow Fleas to be small, but they were actually larger than I imagined, being nearer 1cm long than 5mm. Yeah, OK, I guess that's small. But they are magical. Mostly they scamper through the moss but the odd individual leapt into the air and hid among leaf litter.

After failing to see the Sheringham Eastern Black Redstart, we finished the day at Bintree Mill, waiting for the Black-bellied Dipper to prove it was real. (Which it eventually did, at dusk - and that seems to have been the very last anyone saw of it!) We passed the time by photographing more mini beasts that Will and Sarah spotted: a host of Bristly Millipedes (absolutely amazing-looking critters, which recalled a tiny woodlouse) and several Dorytomus weevils, possibly D. longimanus.

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7 March 2026 It's no flea

A couple of posts this year from Norwich-based entomologist Vanna Bartlett recently caught my eye. Both related to seeing and photographing Snow Fleas in north Norfolk. This is a bizarre, and poorly named, insect. It may be able to leap four inches (the equivalent to a human jumping 50 m), but it is not a flea; moreover, other than living in winter, they are not particularly associated with snow either. One look at their bonce gives the game away: the massive 'beak' is very similar to scorpionflies that sit on nettles and brambles in spring and summer - and, sure enough, Snow Flea sits in a sister family within the same order. I've long wanted to see one - so was delighted when Vanna gave Will, Sarah and me a good idea of where to search for them. Visiting on a spring-like February morning, we saw half a dozen in sun-struck isolated 'islands' walking through 'forests' of Polytrichum moss (first photo below) in open beech woodland; the first we saw - expertly found by Sarah - was actually in a slightly different location, a few hundred metres away.

Having our eyes attuned to the small brought us a variety of other mini beasts, including what we think is the harvestman Rilaena triangularis, a bug-eyed beetle of the genus Notiophilus (which reminded us of a tiny, bronzy tiger-beetle), various ladybirds and Belted Springtail.