Conservation conversations: November 2025 on the Holkham National Nature Reserve

November 28, 2025 | Nature news | 2 minute read

A new spider for Norfolk was found at Lady Anne’s Drive – Anyphaena numida – it was only seen in Uk for first time in 2017 and has more or less been restricted there since. Others have recently however been seen in Dorset, Wales and Cambridgeshire so clearly a species that is on the move. In its original Mediterranean homeland it favours the foliage of Holm Oak trees, so maybe Holkham could be just the place for it !

An interesting wetland fly Elachiptera brevipennis that lives in fens and wetlands was found in Wells Dell, a first for the reserve and indeed the coast of north Norfolk.

With the month turning wet wildfowl numbers began picking up – Pinkfeet reached 38,000 while Wigeon and Teal were slowly building up too. Most interest for the visiting birders was the arrival of 3 Hume’s Warbler and 3 Pallas’s Warblers. The Hume’s Warbler nests in mountain forests stretching from Afghanistan and Pakistan east to China and Mongolia, whilst the Pallas’s Warbler breeds in the taiga forests of Siberia. With both bords smaller than a Wren it always seems miraculous that they are capable of such amazing migratory flights. Whilst the Pallas’s only remained a few days, the Hume’s are still present and if the weather remains mild they look likely to stay for the winter perhaps.

Keen eared visitors may have heard the rutting of Red Deer as a small herd has again taken up residence on the grazing marshes. Other mammal sighting this month included a rare day time look at an Otter whilst an all black (a rare mutation called melanism) Grey Squirrel has been seen in the pinewoods.

What to look out for in December

We are hopeful more ducks and geese will arrive and if we do get any cold weather we may see some Waxwings feasting on the multitude of hawthorn berries that are proliferating the hedgerows this year.

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