Aviemore NH8913

I’m a bit late starting the challenge, I was all set to go at the start of March when I caught a chest infection followed by a pretty nasty head cold.  Then as I was feeling better, the weather wasn’t good.  That wouldn’t normally bother me, having lived here for 20 years, I’m certainly used to the cold, but I was still feeling a bit fragile after my illnesses, so didn’t want to risk any set-backs.

The weather is slowly improving and I’ve managed a couple of trips out round some parts of my square.  I live in my square on the west edge of Aviemore.  Just over half of the square is built up, but there is some grassland and woodland, which has the main A9 trunk road passing through.  The woodland is mostly Birch with some other native hardwoods and a bit of Pine.  There’s a small river running through the square, I’ve seen Brook Lampreys there in previous years.  There are also a couple of boggy areas and one small pond where I’ve seen quite a few Odonata in the past.

My particular interests are birds, plants, butterflies and moths, but I also have a passing interest in most wildlife and record everything that I can identify.  I send my records to the appropriate VC recorders or other recording schemes such as BirdTrack.  Whilst I wasn’t able to get out I had a look at my previous records and I’ve recorded over 450 species within the square since I began recording in 2005.  The largest species groups are moths, plants and birds, although I’ve only really looked at flowering plants, not grasses, so there is room for a few more species there.  I’ve also not really looked at either fungi or lichens, nor general insects beyond some easy ones.

So far this year I’ve only recorded 51 species, but I expect this to quickly increase once I manage a few more walks, most of the 51 are birds I’ve seen in and around my garden.  I also run a moth trap every Friday evening as part of the Garden Moth Scheme, although I’ve only recorded two species in eight weeks of trapping so far due to the cold weather.

	Taxon	Vernacular	Date Added
1	Turdus merula	Blackbird	1st of Jan
2	Parus caeruleus	Blue Tit	1st of Jan
3	Buteo buteo	Buzzard	1st of Jan
4	Corvus corone	Carrion Crow	1st of Jan
5	Fringilla coelebs	Chaffinch	1st of Jan
6	Periparus ater	Coal Tit	1st of Jan
7	Streptopelia decaocto	Collared Dove	1st of Jan
8	Prunella modularis	Dunnock	1st of Jan
9	Parus major	Great Tit	1st of Jan
10	Carduelis chloris	Greenfinch	1st of Jan
11	Larus argentatus	Herring Gull	1st of Jan
12	Passer domesticus	House Sparrow	1st of Jan
13	Aegithalos caudatus	Long-tailed Tit	1st of Jan
14	Erithacus rubecula	Robin	1st of Jan
15	Carduelis spinus	Siskin	1st of Jan
16	Accipiter nisus	Sparrowhawk	1st of Jan
17	Sturnus vulgaris	Starling	1st of Jan
18	Certhia familiaris	Treecreeper	1st of Jan
19	Corvus frugilegus	Rook	2nd of Jan
20	Corvus monedula	Jackdaw	4th of Jan
21	Dendrocopos major	Great Spotted Woodpecker	7th of Jan
22	Columba palumbus	Woodpigeon	8th of Jan
23	Carduelis carduelis	Goldfinch	9th of Jan
24	Troglodytes troglodytes	Wren	9th of Jan
25	Oryctolagus cuniculus	Rabbit	9th of Jan
26	Motacilla alba	Pied Wagtail	10th of Jan
27	Phasianus colchicus	Pheasant	21st of Jan
28	Fringilla montifringilla	Brambling	22nd of Jan
29	Ardea cinerea	Grey Heron	27th of Jan
30	Carduelis cabaret	Lesser Redpoll	29th of Jan
31	Anas platyrhynchos	Mallard	7th of Feb
32	Bombycilla garrulus	Waxwing	10th of Feb
33	Apodemus sylvaticus	Woodmouse	10th of Feb
34	Corvus cornix	Hooded Crow	25th of Feb
35	Haematopus ostralegus	Oystercatcher	2nd of March
36	Turdus philomelos	Song Thrush	2nd of March
37	Larus canus	Common Gull	24th of March
38	Larus marinus	Great Black-backed Gull	29th of March
39	Orthosia cerasi	Common Quaker	12th of April
40	Regulus regulus	Goldcrest	13th of April
41	Chroicocephalus ridibundus	Black-headed Gull	13th of April
42	Fomes fomentarius	Hoof Fungus	13th of April
43	Piptoporus betulinus	Birch Polypore	13th of April
44	Crocus vernus	Crocus	13th of April
45	Bellis perennis	Daisy	13th of April
46	Juniperus communis	Common Juniper	13th of April
47	Chrysoslpenium oppositifolium	Opposite-leaved Golden-saxifrage	13th of April
48	Polypodium vulgare	Polypody	13th of April
49	Betula pendula	Silver Birch	13th of April
50	Achlya flavicornis	Yellow Horned	19th of April
51	Sylvia atricapilla	Blackcap	21st of April

This is part of the Birch woodland taken on a frosty morning.