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