Five hundred species. Five hundred. Shit, that's a lot.
The last few weeks haven't been the easiest for accruing species - cold winds, mainly. The occasional respite, such as last Sunday, was very welcome. Moths have come to the trap at a trickle not a flood, but nevertheless a good range of species, a lot of them in ones or twos.
Plants have also been a good source of new species, and I was most especially pleased to find spring sedge, hairy sedge, prickly sedge and glaucous sedge in flower over the past few days. Sedges, as you may have guessed, are my faves and dear to my heart. Also, it was curious to find a huge tussock of giant fescue in a hedgerow that I must have walked past twenty times without noticing it. Doh.
Anyway, last Sunday was exciting because a wall butterfly flew across my path in the green lane running through the middle of the square. This used to be a common butterfly in mid-Norfolk, but is now pretty uncommon in the whole county and decidedly coastal. Top stuff.
If if if the weather does warm up, I am now starting to feel confident that a thousand species is attainable, and my zealous accumulation of keys, texts and photos is definitely helping. A naturalister needs his stuff. BTW a friend told me a new word for critters, originating I think from the Midlands; gribblers. I like it. Gribblers.
Taraa for now, and good naturalising.
The last few weeks haven't been the easiest for accruing species - cold winds, mainly. The occasional respite, such as last Sunday, was very welcome. Moths have come to the trap at a trickle not a flood, but nevertheless a good range of species, a lot of them in ones or twos.
Plants have also been a good source of new species, and I was most especially pleased to find spring sedge, hairy sedge, prickly sedge and glaucous sedge in flower over the past few days. Sedges, as you may have guessed, are my faves and dear to my heart. Also, it was curious to find a huge tussock of giant fescue in a hedgerow that I must have walked past twenty times without noticing it. Doh.
Anyway, last Sunday was exciting because a wall butterfly flew across my path in the green lane running through the middle of the square. This used to be a common butterfly in mid-Norfolk, but is now pretty uncommon in the whole county and decidedly coastal. Top stuff.
If if if the weather does warm up, I am now starting to feel confident that a thousand species is attainable, and my zealous accumulation of keys, texts and photos is definitely helping. A naturalister needs his stuff. BTW a friend told me a new word for critters, originating I think from the Midlands; gribblers. I like it. Gribblers.
Taraa for now, and good naturalising.
Well done Rob - top work. Wall is excellent. And all those sedges make me worry about how many ticks I've simply trodden on recently without knowing!
ReplyDeleteWell done! I am still not quite at 200, so don't really expect to get to 1000 this year. For a start I don't moth trap, but am thinking about it. Will be away from my square this weekend - back to Norfolk for a few days for family visit.
ReplyDeleteMarilyn