The Durham 1000

 I've done it at last. This morning only a dozen or so moths in the trap but amongst them a Rush Veneer, #1000. Previously a Green Sandpiper flew over and helpfully called which was 999 but I thought it would be some fungi this weekend that would take me over. It's been a hard slog but at last I'm there.


My 1000 breakdown




There's still 3 months to go and a a few fungi and bryophytes to get (hopefully), but I can now take it easy. And there's still a fridge full of wee things to look at in the dark nights

Keith Robson
Waldridge (NZ2549), vc 66

1035 (SLOWER PROGRESS) LINCOLNSHIRE

Since reaching the 1000 mark I have not ventured out much thus in a month produced only 35 records.
The highlight without doubt was finding larval cases of the Mugwort feeder Coleophora artemisicolla only 400 m from my home. I have been looking over many years for this species although tricky to spot with an eye-glass you can see the diagnostic holes in the Mugwort florets. This is a Lincolnshire first and I am sure if you spend time looking you may come across it.. 
It is now leaf-mining season but here in Lincolnshire the miners seem to be almost absent, on Birch I have only come across one of the Phyllonorcyter species.
Not sure of the status of Lesser Stag Beetle but one was in my moth trap the other week, a first for me. 

1001 -PISAURA MIRABILIS (NURSEY WEB SPIDER) 27/8/13

PHYLLONORYCTER SPINICOLEELA (LEAFMINE) 27/8/13

EMERALD DAMSELFLY 27/8/13

EPINOTIA CAPRANA 27/8/13

SALLOW 29/8/13

PHYLLONORYCTER CORYLII 30/8/13

OPILIO SAXATILIS (HARVESTMAN SPIDER)

FROSTED ORANGE 2/9/13

LIMAX FLAVUS (YELLOW SLUG) 3/9/13

BEADED CHESTNUT 3/9/13

LUNAR UNDERWING 3/9/13

BRINDLED GREEN 3/9/13

OAK NYCTEOLINE 4/8/13

EPIPHYAS POSTVITTANA (LIGHT BROWN APPLE MOTH) 4/8/13

ECTEMNIUS CONTINUUS (SAND WASP) 5/9/13

BLACK RUSTIC 7/9/13

DUSKY-LEMON SALLOW 8/9/13

LASSUS LANIO (LEAF-HOPPER) 9/9/13

YPSOLOPHA SYLVELLA 11/9/13

ACLERIS RHOMBANA 11/9/13

EUDONIA ANGUSTEA 11/9/13

DOLICHOVESPULA MEDIA (MEDIAN WASP) 14/9/13

ISOCHNUS SEQUENSI (WEEVIL MINE) 15/9/13

COLEOPHORA ARTEMISICOLELLA (LARVAL CASE) 18/9/13

DORCUS PARALLELIPIPEDUS (LESSER STAG BEETLE)

PINK-BARRED SALLOW 21/9/13

ACLERIS SPARSANA 22/9/13

BORDERED BEAUTY 23/9/13

LYGUS RUGULIPENNIS (PLANT BUG) 22/9/13

EUCOSMA CONTERMINANA 24/9/13

GREEN-BRINDLED CRESCENT 25/9/13

BLAIRS-SHOULDER KNOT 25/9/13

LARGE WAINSCOT 26/9/13

PINE CARPET 26/9/13

1035 -STIGMELLA OXYACANTHELLA (LEAFMINE) 27/9/13 PENDING - ANYONE KNOW THE IDENTIFCATION OF PRESUMED SAWFLY LARVA ON BIRCH. THANKS MARTIN GRAY

Update from TM0025

I’m pleased to say that I have made good progress in the last few days, in spite of my pessimism that the changing of the season would kill off all forms of life. I’ve just had to work a little harder at it.

Birds

823. Treecreeper, Certhia familiaris

Mammals

824. Brown rat, Rattus norvegicus (interesting that it has taken so long to find one in an area that should be perfect for them)

Hoverflies

825. Eristalis arbustorum

826. Eristalis intricarius

827. Platycheirus scutatus (identified by the diagnostic tarsal structure)

828. Syrphus vitripennis (identified by examining microtrichia on 2nd basal cell!)

Other flies

829. Short-palped cranefly, Limonia nebeculosa

830. Yellow dungfly, Scathophaga stercoraria

Beetles

831. Common sun-beetle, Amara aenea

832. Lily beetle, Lilioceris lilii    

Aphids

833. Common dogwood-grass aphid, Anoecia corni      

Moths

834. Blair’s shoulder-knot, Lithophane leautieri hersperica

835. Caloptilia elongella

836. Common marbled carpet, Chloroclysta truncata    

837. Large ranunculus, Polymixi flavicincta      

838. Lunar underwing, Omphaloscelis lunosa   

839. Nut bud moth, Epinotia tenerana

840. Red underwing, Catocala nupta

841. Sallow, Xanthia icteritia

842. Toadflax pug, Eupithecia linariata

Spiders

843. Antistea elegans

844. Bark-sac spider, Clubiona corticalis (impressive, even with a leg missing)

845. Comb-footed spider, Theridion sisyphium

846. Crab spider, Xysticus cristatus

847. Euophrys aequipes

848. Harpactaea rubicunda

849. Sheet-web spider, Linyphia triangularis

850. Steatoda bipunctata

Springtail

851. Orchesella cincta

Gastropods

852. Aegopinella nitidula

853. Zonitoides nitidus  

Worms 

854. Black-headed worm, Aporrectodea longa

Galls

855. Dasineura fraxini (gall midge of ash)

Plants

856. Apple tree, Malus domestica

857. Bladder sedge, Carex vesicaria

858. Borage,  Borago officinalis

859. Broom fork-moss, Dicranum scoparium

860. Caper spurge, Euphorbia lathyris

861. Capillary thread-moss, Bryum capillare

862. Common feather-moss, Kindbergia praelonga

863. Fennel, Foeniculum vulgare

864. Great mullein, Verbascum thapsus

865. Sharp-flowered rush, Juncus acutiflorus

866. Velvet feather-moss, Brachytheciastrum velutinum

867. Wall screw-moss, Tortula muralis

868. Water chickweed, Myosoton aquaticum

869. White-tipped bristle-moss, Orthotrichum diaphanum

Fungi

870. Glistening inkcap, Coprinellus micaceus

871. Parasola plicatilis

872. Shaggy inkcap, Coprinus comatus

873. Split gill, Schizophyllum commune

874. Thin-walled maze-polypore, Daedaleopsis confragosa

875. White fibre-cap, Inocybe geophylla

TG3208 statistics ...

I thought others might like to see the breakdown of my 1000:

The small number of lepidoptera is due to my foolish refusal to use a moth trap, though I lost my nerve when I saw the huge numbers clocked up by others in July and I did pop round to Ben in the next street and dip into his trap on a couple of mornings. The surprises for me were the number of vascular plants, and Hemiptera which I had never really tackled before; the biggest disappointments were the vertebrates with just 12 mammals, herptiles and fish combined - so far. Up to 1019 now and as long as the weather holds up I am still hunting.

Tim

Playing Away

As a change from our urban existence a camping holiday took us to an extremely rural location, famous for its wildlife. We were only there for five days, but could I get anywhere near 1,000 ? Why not, we wouldn't be travelling around a lot, and it would give me something to do. The answer: no, of course I couldn't. One problem was that our chosen destination was a small, virtually treeless island on the south-western edge of Britain, St Agnes, which I'm sure many of you know. At the moment my total for our square there is about 450. If I ever get round to identifying a few mosses in packets it should go up a bit. We weren't helped by an almost total absence of migrant birds or insects: although a Small Marbled livened things up a bit I didn't even see a Diamond Back. The sea shores, at least those at Troytown, are too exposed to be very species-rich but two species of pipefish was nice and I wished I had some better seaweed keys (not that I'm sad or owt). Nice oceanic lichens there, including both Rocella species and Teloschistes flavicans. Of course it's not news that small islands have depauperate biota but interesting to note that a five minute shopping expedition in Hugh Town produced, if not the hoped for sea sickness pills, Episyrphus balteatus, Stigmella aurella, Pholcus phalangioides and Robin, none of them seen on Agnes. I wonder if 1,000 is do-able in a week anywhere in the UK ?

Thanks Heavens for Little Moths

I've been rather lax about posting since Small Skipper got me over the 1,000 mark a while back. I would apologise, but that would imply that someone out there was bothered, which I doubt. Pressure of work and the usual disappointing nature of August have slowed me down anyway but like most of you I enjoyed the July moth rush. We've been in the house for a shocking 17 years: when we moved in I (only half-jokingly) stated that we would move on when a whole year went by without a macro-moth tick for the garden. Astonishingly this nightmare has yet to arrive but this year has been the best for firsts since 2006 partly because this strange challenge encouraged me to check the trap at night rather than just in the morning. The mighty eight were: water carpet, varied coronet, dark umber, brown-veined wainscot, large emerald, buff footman, dark brocade and ear. Micro-moth ticks have been too numerous to list but Palpita vitrealis was well received. I had hoped to get to 300 moths for the year, it might be 400 with a bit of luck. Plants have also over-performed: target 200, reality 320 and I'm still getting new ones, most recently Phalaris canariensis and Juncus tenuis. Unfortunately the most popular pigeon-feeding spots are just outside the aquare, excluding exciting plants such as Niger, Sunflower, Pea and a variety of grasses. Bird highlight of the year was undoubtedly Green Sandpiper, three of them flying over: thanks to them for calling incessantly. Now I'm waiting for a few fungi to appear so I can fail to identify them.

TQ6410 - walking the final furlong ….

Our ‘Slow but Sure’ bird-race team for next month’s RX event (the coastal area between Hastings and Dungeness) is so-called as we’ve shunned cars for the past two years and elected to walk all day, apart from using vehicles to get us to our Hastings Country Park starting-point and back again from Rye Harbour. Of course, we never get anywhere near to Dungeness or to a host of other good birding spots locally - far too far to walk - but we’ve still managed to get over 100 species each time. The ‘Slow but Sure’ label could almost apply to my 1KSQ effort too. It’s been ‘slow’ right enough (apart from an initial rush with plants which I could mostly ID via the leaves) but it’s hardly been ‘sure’ - especially when it comes to ID-ing dodgy beetles, spiders and hundreds of other barely visible invertebrates and other microscopic life forms. I’m still giving springtails, galls (apart from knoppers), leaf-mines - and quite a lot else - a fairly wide berth but I’ve stuck with butterflies and moths, odenata and plants, easy to identify invertebrates … and my new fascination with hoverflies. Fungi are also proving tricky (lots of photos though) .... I was doing OK with birds with almost 90 species but these have all but dried up in recent weeks and my last ornithological contribution was Sand Martin on 30th June. I’ve got most of the expected stuff but am still missing Little and Barn Owl, Stonechat, Spotted Flycatcher, Yellow Wagtail and one or two other pretty common local species. Peregrine, Marsh Harrier and Short-eared Owl have also all been seen regularly in the next square(s) during the autumn months and Hen Harrier and Red Kite have both flown over the plot in previous years. Any of these raptors would be great for my 1000th species but the likelihood is that it’ll be yet another little brown moth, some obscure plant I’d completely overlooked or a dubious spider or fungi ID.

Another thirteen new species should finally get me past the elusive 1000 barrier sometime very soon … and maybe normality will slowly return to a post-1000-species, rustic way-of-life here at the plot. Did I say ‘rustic’? Aha - Autumn Rustic must be due any day now! I’m not saying this 1KSQ Challenge has got to me a bit but strimming the paths around the plot last week with bins AND Lumix hanging around my neck was just bordering on the ridiculous. Patrick Roper must be wondering locally what all the fuss is about given that he’s been recording a 1m square in his back garden for the past decade (over 700 species to date) …. Mightily impressive but how does that work with flyover birds …. and is there a similar psychological impact that some of the 1KSQ-ists have been trying to shake off since reaching 1000 species this summer?

4th Sep - moth trap:
939 - Centre-barred Sallow Atethmia centrago
940 - Small China-mark Cataclysta lemnata (micro-moth)
941 - Flounced Rustic Luperina testacea
942 - Light Brown Apple Moth Epiphyas postvittana (micro-moth)
943 - Treble Bar Aplocera plagiata
944 - Tinea semifulvella (micro-moth - below)

945 - Pyrausta purpuralis (micro-moth)
946 - Catoptria falsella (micro-moth)
947 - Vestal Rhodometra sacraria (below)

948 - Click Beetle Stenagostus rhombeus not sure about dark colour of this one but it has ‘V’ on lower body
949 - Cochylimorpha straminea (micro-moth) no surprise as the lower plot’s full of Lesser Knapweed
950 - Nut Weevil Curculio nucum (below) several in the moth trap recently …


951 - Diamond-back Moth Plutella xylostella (micro-moth)

5th Sep - at the plot:
952 - Straw Underwing Thalpophila matura landed on (hit?) the van windscreen just as I drove up to the plot the other evening. When I checked out another strange object under my windscreen-wiper yesterday morning (15th Sep), it turned out to be a Pipistrelle (deceased). Sorry …..

7th Sep - around the plot and square:
953 - Pale Persicaria Persicaria lapathifolia along the wet woodland edge and in the former nightingale scrub (the latter now re-seeded for yet more grazing). I’d photo’d the two Persicaria species together some time ago but overlooked an ID until Rob Yaxley’s recent report reminded me. Thanks for that one Rob!

8th Sep - around the plot (or rather around the bramble, fleabane & knapweed patches for the 35th time this summer):
954 - Pellucid Fly Volucella pellucens basking on mouldy blackberries in the upper meadow
955 - Hoverfly Xylota sylvarum flitting to and fro over bramble leaves while I was picking (non-mouldy) blackberries
956 - Hoverfly - Platycheirus scutatus
957 - Ground Beetle Amara aulica (below) caught in the act - feeding on a Lesser Knapweed flower/seed-head - and unable to hide the evidence!

958 - Hoverfly Sericomyia silentis (below) swamping a Devil’s Bit Scabious flower. A rather unexpected visitor … and needs to go on a diet.  Another one two days ago by the little ditch ....


9th Sep - Sifting through the ever growing ‘unidentified pics in TQ6410’ folder ….
959 - White-footed Hoverfly Platycheirus albimanus grey & black abdomen 16/8 - ID’d from photo
960 - Ground Beetle (snail hunter) Cychrus caraboides ditto - photo’d on 17/8
961 - Hoverfly Eristalinus sepulchralis ditto - photo’d on Fleabane on 18/8
962 - Mirid Bug Deraeocoris ruber (below) was frequent on Fleabane last month but only just ID’d

963 - Field Damsel Bug Nabis ferus on Fleabane in the lower meadow on 23/8
964 - Knopper Oak Gall wasp Andricus quercuscalicis These sticky oak galls are widespread and very numerous on all the many re-generating pendunculate oaks on the plot here ....

11th Sep - around the plot and in the moth trap:
965 - Udea lutealis (micro-moth) on Fleabane just before dusk
966 - Oak Bush-cricket Meconema thalassinum (in the moth trap)
967 - Acleris emergana (micro-moth)
968 - Monopis weaverella (micro-moth)
969 - Red Underwing Catocala nupta (below) not in the trap but resting on the timber workshop wall at head height (at 2.30am)

970 - Small Square-spot Diarsia rubi
971 - Vine’s Rustic Hoplodrina ambigua
972 - Dung Beetle Aphodius rufipes two black and one brown in the moth-trap

13th -14th Sep - around the plot and late evening moth trap:
973 - Leafhopper Empoasca vitis on a bramble leaf in the upper meadow (having discounted Empoasca decipiens)
974 - Hedge Rustic Tholera crespitis
975 - Frosted Orange Gortyna flavago
976 - Flame Carpet Xanthorhoe designata
977 - Lunar Underwing Omphaloscelis lunosa (below)


15th Sep - along the wet woodland edge (a consistently productive part of my 1km square):
978 - White Willow Salix alba just inside the wet woodland …. missed this one despite repeated visits here …
979 - Vapourer Orgyia antiqua (larva - below) on an alder leaf alongside the wet woodland-edge … rather bizarrely as I thought I’d probably see the moth today (but didn’t) ….

980 - Tomato Solanum lycopersicum (below) …. seriously! A plant about 60cm high by the ditch on the edge of the wet woodland (complete with a couple of decent-sized green tomatoes). This arable field/woodland-edge is quite remote and a long way from habitation - even the public bridleway runs along the opposite side of the field. Must have been dropped by a fox or badger or maybe the tractor driver chucked out one of his cheese and tomato sandwiches last year while cutting the field. One of the more unexpected finds of the year so far and undoubtedly my ‘find-of-the-day’ today - I've propped it up with a dead hogweed stem ….


981 - Garden Spider Araneus diadematus spiders are going to have to figure more and more on this list …… at last!
982 - Chequered Hoverfly Melanostoma scalare on Fleabane in the wet woodland-edge ditch ….

16th Sep - around the plot:
983 - Field Mushroom Agaricus campestris first one of the autumn in the grass by the picnic table (appropriately enough). Can confirm its edibility but just in case if you don’t hear any more from me with the 1000th species looming ….

17th Sep – around the plot:
984 - Sulphur Tuft Hypholoma fasiculare (below) on a fallen dead branch in the bluebell wood

985 - Parasol Mushroom Lepiota procera in the meadow - just pushing up through the long grass
986 - Dewberry Rubus caesius in amongst all the other blackberries in the front meadow
987 - Woundwort Shieldbug Eysarcoris venustissimus (below) - several ladybird-size nymphs on Hedge Woundwort in the front meadow as well as the adult shieldbug on a nearby nettle ....

So on to 987 species .... and the detox will start very soon, hopefully!