Saturday, September 7, 2013

To 1100...and beyond!

Well, August was a busy month, and a very exciting one, but unfortunately mostly away from home and my 1k square. However, I still managed somehow to add another 100 or so species to the list, just over half of which were Lepidoptera. The inevitable cutting of crops, murdering of hedges and the trimming of verges that comes in August has had a fairly dramatic effect on my ability to locate new species, in particular the severe haircut given to the local green lane and stream banks, and the reduction of the accompanying hedges to "waffer-thin" veils of hacked twigs. I understand the need to trim vegetation, but surely doing it in August must have a major effect on invertebrate populations? Hedges can ALL wait until winter, while grass cuts could just as easily be done in late September or early October. I don't give a monkeys what they do with the crops!

Another feature of the month has been, at the end, a trickle of migrant birds over the square, including green sandpiper, tree pipit, whimbrel, little egret and snipe. The tree pip was first for my garden, while the green sand and whimbrel were both seconds. The tree pipit appeared on the same day that I found a wryneck and located a subsequently identified booted warbler on Blakeney Point - see, it all ties in!

Anyway, before the mechanical shitstorm, I did see some good bits and pieces, including a random selection:

Syrphus vitripennis hoverfly
Rubus caesius dewberry
Harmonia axyridis Harlequin ladybird
Meconema thalassinum Oak bush cricket
Persicaria lapathifolia pale persicaria
Eristalis nemorum hoverfly
Chrysotoxum bicinctum hoverfly
Lycaena phlaeas small copper
Aeshna mixta Migrant hawker
Dasineura crataegi Gall aphid on hawthorn
Cynips divisa oak leaf gall
Eupontania pedunculi gall on willow
Tachyporus hypnorum rove beetle
Cordylepherus viridis beetle
Coprinellus callinus mushroom in lawn
Opilio saxatilis harvest spider
Apamea ophiogramma double-lobed moth
Prunus domestica plum                     

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