A cracking start

Like many others it seems, I made a fairly slow start. I concentrated on working out the boundaries and as Seth pointed out, my square is rather hilly so I made slow progress due to my extreme lack of fitness!

I ended the day on 42 species (plus one agg; bramble, plus 2 leaf mines and some mole hills which I can't count). I am stubbornly refusing to count humans and dogs for the time being.....

Despite the low total, I got 3 lifers; Stinking Iris, the fungus Flammulina velutipes (on cut gorse stumps) and the pond skater Gerris gibbifer found in a drinking trough! All these could be described as tart's ticks but the whole point of this challenge for me is to force me to look at groups that I neglect.

Most of the species today were birds and I was quietly happy with a fly-over Common Gull and a flushed Woodcock. Just as my legs were telling me it was time to head back, I spotted my 'species-of-the-day' -  a cracking male Hawfinch! OK, so I see them a fair amount in the New Forest but it's all about location, location, location and finding one here gave me a real buzz. Needless to say, by the time I'd got my camera out it was gone, so here's a photo of where it was!

So thanks for setting up this challenge Andy, if it carries on like this I am going to really enjoy 2013.