Dalgety Bay, Fife - end of May roundup

As usual it's actually one day early but what the hell. A 7-spot ladybird larva at lunchtime became the 49th beetle. Would be nice to round it off tonight but I am socially engaged and chances are I won't add anything this evening (unless my visitor can be persuaded to go moth hunting - a possibility).

All-in I this year have added 945 records to iRecord of 739 species. Obviously not all are from the square or my total would be transformed! However, here are the numbers as they stand right now. Possibly to be slightly updated tomorrow.

Going into June I am looking at some reduced time - I'll be grinding through pitfall trap contents for St.Andrews bioblitz (we do process them after the 24 hour period for an overall total) and then I'll be going on holiday. Still, June ought to be productive enough that I can more or less make good. I kind of expect to reach 1000 during August-September so it will include the start of the vismig calendar and include exotica like Tree Pipit and Long-tailed Skua (bird gods willing). On the other hand those months could be so profligate in their affections that 1k comes and goes before the skuas appear (but not the Tripits which pass in July). The big decision - declare or bat on? Only time will tell.

(edit. I'd like my 1000th to be a Hobby. That'd be nice)(2nd Edit. Tree Pipits August. Dunno what I was thinking)

The numbers by "gross" taxonomic grouping

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May
Algae	8	13	16	17	17
Lichens	37	41	43	44	46
Fungi	28	31	44	49	53
Vert - Birds	38	50	56	62	64
Vert - Other	2	4	8	9	9
Lepidoptera	1	2	9	14	29
Diptera	4	7	12	41	68
Arachnida	4	13	20	25	32
Coleoptera	6	17	17	21	49
Mollusc	9	24	27	33	33
Collembola	8	10	12	12	12
Invert - Other	22	33	51	62	78
Plants - Vascular	47	63	74	92	107
Plants - Bryo	22	29	30	30	30
	236	337	419	511	627

The numbers by, erm, numbers

	31-Jan	28-Feb	31-Mar	30-Apr	31-May
days remaining	334	306	275	245	214
species so far	236	337	419	511	627
species/day period	7.61	3.61	2.65	3.07	3.74
spec/day so far	7.61	5.71	4.66	4.26	4.15
species remaining	764	663	581	489	373
spec/day rqd	2.29	2.17	2.11	2.00	1.74
spec/week rqd	16.01	15.17	14.79	13.97	12.20

Count compared with previous reserve year counts