Cullaloe LNR - one day left

until the end of April. 300th lep for the reserve came up on the 28th and I'm about 8 species off 700 for the year as we stand. Here's hoping! Also hoping that the 300th moth for the reserve won't be very far away

The Streamer - a nice one for the 300th

Bridport & Thorne week 17

Added a good number of species which took the Thorne total well over 400 before the end of April.
This weeks photo is of a roosting Orange-tip butterfly.

And the numbers are as follows

Group	Thorne	Bridport	Group	Thorne	Bridport
Slime moulds	1	1	Hemiptera	12	2
Lichens	22	6	Coleoptera	11	2
Fungi	19	2	Diptera	17	5
Bryophytes	22	7	Hymenoptera	21	8
Plants	161	145	Butterflies	9	5
Molluscs	6	2	Moths	30	13
Annelids	2	0	Insects RSO	2	1
Arachnids	6	2	Fish	1	1
Myriapods	0	0	Amphibia	3	1
Crustacea	10	5	Reptiles	0	0
Springtails	0	0	Birds	50	44
Odonata	1	0	Mammals	6	4
Orthoptera	2	1	Total	414	257

Cullaloe LNR - 666, the number of some beasts

So after a week away watching the Fieldfares buzz about the treetops and breeding Barnacle Geese wandering around the place in Norwegian sunshine it's back to the grindstone at Cullaloe. There's plenty to catch and ID and it looks like I'll break last year's April 676 tally, though not by as much as hoped. I had expected to be a bit further on than this and it seems the fastest 1000 is safe. Even making 700 this month would be a stretch. Still happy with the amount of new stuff coming through though and my target of 200 new species for the reserve is almost done already.

There was a red letter day when I found two new flowering plants in an under-surveyed corner of the reserve at the weekend. It's an interesting bit which is hard to get to and was apparently omitted in the NVC survey since it's clearly not what the map claims it is! Anyway, Gooseberry and Greater Stitchwort were nice finds there among about ten new species.

Greater Stitchwort

Some more pics:

Hairy Shieldbug

County first Omonadus floralis

Also a new stenus for me and the reserve - S.flavipes. I'm loving the Stenus more since I learned to gen det them and I think this is species 5 this year

Latest numbers:

650			R		flowering plant	Ribes uva-crispa	Gooseberry
651			R		flowering plant	Stellaria holostea	Greater Stitchwort
652			R		hemiptera	Liocoris tripustulatus	A mirid bug
653					hemiptera	Stenodema calcarata	A Mirid Bug
654			R		hemiptera	Monalocoris filicis	Bracken Bug
655					insect-other	Nemoura cinerea	A Stonefly
656			R	M	insect-other	Hemerobius humulinus	A brown lacewing
657			R	M	diptera	Hylemya variata	A flower fly
658					flowering plant	Luzula multiflora	Heath Wood-rush
659					flowering plant	Alopecurus pratensis	Meadow Foxtail
660					flowering plant	Prunus avium	Cherry
661					flowering plant	Potentilla anserina	Silverweed
662					flowering plant	Rosa spinosissima	Burnet Rose
663					flowering plant	Anthoxanthum odoratum	Sweet Vernal-grass
664			R		coleoptera	Atholus duodecimstriatus	A histerid beetle
665			R		coleoptera	Stenus flavipes	A rove beetle
666					flowering plant	Symphytum x uplandicum	Russian Comfrey

Bridport & Thorne week 16

A good week with many species added which has already taken me past my end-April number of last year.

This weeks photo is a moth; The Streamer.

And the numbers for the two sites are as follows

Group	Thorne	Bridport	Group	Thorne	Bridport
Slime moulds	1	1	Hemiptera	11	1
Lichens	22	6	Coleoptera	11	2
Fungi	19	2	Diptera	15	2
Bryophytes	22	7	Hymenoptera	19	7
Plants	140	131	Butterflies	7	4
Molluscs	6	2	Moths	21	8
Annelids	2	0	Insects RSO	2	0
Arachnids	4	2	Fish	1	1
Myriapods	0	0	Amphibia	2	0
Crustacea	10	5	Reptiles	0	0
Springtails	0	0	Birds	49	43
Odonata	0	0	Mammals	6	4
Orthoptera	2	1	Total	372	228

Bridport & Thorne week 15

My undoubted highlight of the week was finding a Heather Ladybird at Thorne. As well as being a 'lifer' this was at first a major surprise. The surprise being in that no heathland exists within at least 15 or 20 miles of Thorne. However as I read up about Heather Ladybird's it became apparent that recently they have started using Leylandii trees as a habitat. It was within a group of Leylandii that I found the ladybird.
So this weeks photo is of a Heather Ladybird. (I know I could do with a better macro facility on the camera!)

The numbers for the 2 sites are given below

Group	Thorne	Bridport	Group	Thorne	Bridport
Slime moulds	1	1	Hemiptera	9	1
Lichens	17	6	Coleoptera	9	2
Fungi	18	2	Diptera	8	2
Bryophytes	22	7	Hymenoptera	13	7
Plants	129	131	Butterflies	7	3
Molluscs	6	2	Moths	19	5
Annelids	2	0	Insects RSO	2	0
Arachnids	4	2	Fish	1	1
Myriapods	0	0	Amphibia	2	0
Crustacea	9	5	Reptiles	0	0
Springtails	0	0	Birds	49	43
Odonata	0	0	Mammals	5	4
Orthoptera	2	1	Total	334	224