Wembury

Currently 1798.008 km away from my square (according to the wonders of the interweb) in italy with the in laws so species count is a fat 0. Starting in earnest on Saturday morning. Here is a December Rose Chafer as a consolation!

TL0894 on 58

Well, finished day one on 56 species, most of these birds but also added a few plants I'm familiar with and the odd invert. Best was a flock of Mandarin, which are by no means guaranteed in the square in any year.

Mammals were disappointing with no sign of the daily Bank Voles on our feeders and despite an evening walk I couldn't even rustle up a rabbit. That did turn up another goodie in the form of a few Snipe flying about at dusk.

A quick check of the fields west of the river this morning turned up Grey Squirrel and Red Fox so at least the mammals are starting to tick up now. Still no sign of our voles though.

Plants are going to be a real challenge. I find I don't know my White Willow from my Crack Willow and a lush plant in a stream already has me stumped - perhaps an Oenanthe species. Is the large tight flat rosette-like thistle Cirsium vulgare?

My list will be recorded here: http://thenaturalstone.blogspot.co.uk/

A cracking start

Like many others it seems, I made a fairly slow start. I concentrated on working out the boundaries and as Seth pointed out, my square is rather hilly so I made slow progress due to my extreme lack of fitness!

I ended the day on 42 species (plus one agg; bramble, plus 2 leaf mines and some mole hills which I can't count). I am stubbornly refusing to count humans and dogs for the time being.....

Despite the low total, I got 3 lifers; Stinking Iris, the fungus Flammulina velutipes (on cut gorse stumps) and the pond skater Gerris gibbifer found in a drinking trough! All these could be described as tart's ticks but the whole point of this challenge for me is to force me to look at groups that I neglect.

Most of the species today were birds and I was quietly happy with a fly-over Common Gull and a flushed Woodcock. Just as my legs were telling me it was time to head back, I spotted my 'species-of-the-day' -  a cracking male Hawfinch! OK, so I see them a fair amount in the New Forest but it's all about location, location, location and finding one here gave me a real buzz. Needless to say, by the time I'd got my camera out it was gone, so here's a photo of where it was!

So thanks for setting up this challenge Andy, if it carries on like this I am going to really enjoy 2013.

Pining for Norfolk

Really enjoying the blog posts today and slightly miffed I'm not at home til tomorrow evening (after dark to boot). However, think I've found myself a new fungus up here in Yorkshire, so that's some recompense - will check it when I get home tomorrow (black blobby thing on oak twigs)

Rosy Woodlouse is species of the day in my book! Nice one Mark. Also interested to hear Seth finding the actual mites of Aceria fraxinivora - I've seen the galls before but sounds like a bit of surgery might be timely!

Cheers

Andy

Trent Park - Day 1

My first trip around my square in Trent Park was mostly about walking the bounds and familiarising myself with roughly where the square's borders are within the park. We came up with 44 species after a couple of hours including siskin, goldcrest and coal tit but somehow missed some really common species including the blackbird! I don't know if sheer numbers of dogs are keeping them away or I've become selectively blind to such a common bird. A few species were tantalisingly close but just outside my square. For example there's a nice clump of mistletoe in a tree just south of my square no doubt with some of its associated insect species too. I'm hoping I can find one within my square and low down enough that I can give it a tap with a beating tray under it.

I got a single invertebrate tick with the Common Striped Woodlouse, Philoscia muscorum found under a birch log.

Crap camera-phone-down-microscope view of P. muscorum

GUERNSEY 1 JAN 13

An hour's walk round the lanes late this afternoon with a single Marsh Harrier and a Coot swimming in the quarry a bonus. Also on the roadside there I discovered two Buck's-horn Plantain plants which I was not expecting to see in the square as I've only seen them on the coast here on the island. Found a nice mossy bank and saw quite a few Earth tongue fungus sticking up, a type of fungus I have never seen before.

Here on the island we appear to have two species present : Geoglossum cookeianum and Trichoglossum hirsutum. Even under the microscope this didn't have any hairs on it so I assume it is the former, and the description of that species matches the specimen closely.

January 1st

Well it is a start. The weather was really good so also did a bit of patch birding.
My first find was a House Spider at 12:03 this morning, I then waited for daylight.
14 species of bird, mainly at the bird table.and a few plants in flower. 5 Roe Deer sunning themselves in a field was a nice sight.

Grand total for the day = 28 species.

Blackbird

Collared Dove

Hawthorn

Jackdaw

Starling

Woodpigeon

Robin

House Spider

Greenfinch

House Sparrow

Dunnock

Blue Tit

Ivy

Bramble

Chaffinch

Groundsel

Cleavers

White Dead Nettle

Rook

Daisy

Oak

Elder

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Dandelion

Common Mallow

Roe Deer

Great Tit

Garlic Mustard

Whetstone, SP5595ish 01/01/2013

Off to an underwhelming steady start to my 1000 in 1kmsq challenge, mainly due to spending most of the daylight hours out of the square making a better start on my January and Patch bird lists. Despite this, I've ended the day (so far) on 25 species including the family members. I probably could have made more effort in the garden during a brief lunch stop, but I focussed on a few innocuous bits that I knew were there like these:

Grey-cushioned Grimmia

Marchantia polymorpha

Xanthoria parietina

Also managed to find something I can't ID as yet - looks like some sort of slime mould .....

Here's what I recorded (click for legible):

ST. ETIENNE

A quick rummage in the garden this morning and I found a species I've never noticed before, a Rosy Woodlouse under a flower pot.

So first species is Human, just 999 to go :) Just heading out with 33 under the belt from the house.