Saturday, October 28, 2017

Who's been lazy? - Co. Durham update

Its good to see everyone has continued with the challenge and the 1K has been or is ready to be passed by several pan-listers.
Its been several months since I have updated anything partly, to be honest, because I got bored but also, I  took on a job of surveying the magnesium limestone flora on sections of the A19.... and its a *£$%ing long road. Plus, I've been doing some birding etc in Cyprus. Now I've finished all that and I've got the time,  it's gale force winds and not much in the way of daylight but at least it allowed me to start totalling everything up. I've had the moth trap running a couple of times a week but it's been a rush to just id the moths never mind anything else in it. That's the excuses out of the way.

So here is where I'm at and I doubt I'll get more than another 20 by year end. My plan at the start of this was to look at groups I don't normally bother with but it hasn't worked out like that and I think its partly because I did this challenge in 2014. I've been lazy and as I knew where most of the birds, flora and bryophytes were, together with checking the moth trap on a regular basis, it's been too easy.
If I had to do it again, and it will n
ot be in the near future, I would pick a different square, preferably one I'm not at all familiar with.
Meanwhile, I'll continue this year and then concentrate on my UK (well mainly Durham) Pan-list next year. I've got a whole coastline I've hardly explored.








Keith Robson
Waldridge, Co. Durham (VC66)

Friday, October 27, 2017

Sand Point VC6

Well done Ali on your 1,000. I've not been to my patch for weeks so can't see me getting to 1,000 this year. The list below is from an unpublished draft from my last visit. May try and get to 900 before the year end. A few more moth trapping sessions and I'd have reached 1,000 quite comfortably. Oh well, next time....

877. Aphodius foetidus
878. Field Grasshopper
879. Poecilus cupreus
880. Bembidion minimum
881. Ectemnius rubicola
882. Crepidodera aurea
883. Mydaea ancilla
884. Eudasyphora cyanella
885. Culex pipiens
886. Setisquamalonchaea fumosa
887. Schoenomyza litorella
888. Opomyza germinationis

Monday, October 23, 2017

Dalgety Bay, fife - The 1000 : breakdown

So after a two week recovery period in Turkey here's a breakdown of how the total was reached. I'll have to think about my favourites later.

It's been fun. Sometimes exciting, sometimes trying. Sometimes amazingly easy, sometimes very difficult. There were plenty surprises and a full quarter of the final tally were species new to me. That might be worth breaking down too.

I'm looking forward to looking at some neglected places and groups to be honest, but it's been a very rewarding exercise. I'll continue to record a few "extra" species for when species on the list prove to be bulls.. erroneous. Now I'm taking it a bit easier birds are starting to finally trickle in, though with winter thrushes being the latest additions maybe that pool is drying up.

Here's how the numbers grew compared with previous annual listing on my local nature reserve

You can see the benefit of working a square close to home/work that's always accessible. The other one is too, to be fair, but I never visited it as consistently.

Here's how the numbers grew by category,

It's not so easy to see how the inverts broke down from this but flies came on strong latterly as moths died away. Moths were severely under-represented really as I only was able to take a serious moth trap on site in the final month. Let's not talk about beetles ... the surge of autumn fungi is pretty obvious though.

The way the numbers moved can be seen reasonably well on here:

Class Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep 23-Oct
Verts 40 54 64 71 73 74 85 92 95 99
Inverts 54 106 148 208 301 365 411 467 499 505
Plants 69 92 104 122 137 147 188 201 203 203
Fungi 65 72 87 93 99 102 119 139 176 181
Algae 8 13 16 17 17 17 17 17 17 17
Total 236 337 419 511 627 705 820 916 990 1005

And the final breakdown of today's tally of 1005 ...


Category Oct-23
alga 17
Protist other 0
slime mould 2
lichen 48
fungus 131
liverwort 5
moss 27
flowering plant 165
conifer 2
fern 4
cnidarian 4
mollusc 33
bryozoan 2
annelid 7
flatworm 1
harvestman 5
pseudoscorpion 1
spider 29
gall mite 0
tick 1
millipede 6
centipede 3
crustacean 15
collembola 13
bristletails 1
odonata 0
dermaptera 1
orthoptera 0
hemiptera 29
coleoptera 58
diptera 154
lep-moth 92
lep-butterfly 9
hymenoptera 34
insect-other 4
tunicate 1
echinoderm 1
invert-other 1
fish 4
reptile 0
amphibian 2
bird 88
mammal 5

Just for luck, some more numbers:
1001 Pyrrhula pyrrhula Bullfinch
1002 Eudasyphora cyanella A muscid fly
1003 Lactarius pubescens A mushroom
1004 Turdus iliacus Redwing
1005 Turdus pilaris Fieldfare

Lactarius pubescens

Winter thrushes

Saturday, October 7, 2017

Dalgety Bay - Four digits!

On Thursday a small  patch of Nitschkia collapsa was found on (probably) ash, which left only one species to find. I had hoped it might be a passing flock of barnacle geese or a sea eagle or something but in the end it turned out to be another mushroom (fungus 130)!

This morning at 8:13 in in Chapel Wood I came across a few fruit bodies (mushrooms to "normal people"!) of  Laccaria laccata, which is the official species #1000!

Because I'm not at work and have no tools, here it is in all its unfocussed, uncropped glory


Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Dalgety Bay - a new dawn, a new day, a new fly ... again

Sorry about the repetitive theme but this is what we're working with now! Maybe another bird will show up at lunchtime today. Why not? (edit: another bird did not show up at lunchtime. hella windy too!)

Having found myself briefly locked out as I waited for the missus yesterday night I stumbled into this lovely Lactarius deterrimus on the edge of a garden. It has orange milk, which narrows it down very swiftly!

The fly, Suillia pallida, was only finally sorted out this morning though I had keyed the family and guessed the genus yesterday.

Lactarius deterrimus

Suillia pallida

The creeping count
988 Chloroclysta siterata Red-green Carpet
989 Ocydromia glabricula A fly
990 Lucilia silvarum A fly
991 Phaonia rufiventris A fly
992 Anser anser Greylag Goose
993 Lactarius deterrimus A milkcap
994 Suillia pallida A fly