Thats Durham done

Well I reckon that's me finished now. 1047, pretty much as was planned though I should have put a lot more effort in looking for invertebrates.

Only a few addtions, though the Brown Hare I had given up on as it's been a couple of years since I had one here.

1042. Peziza badia (Bay Cup fungus)
1043. Palustriella commutata (Curled Hook-moss)
1044. Lepus europaeus (Brown Hare)
1045. Poecilocampa populi (December Moth)
1046. Erannis defoliaria (Mottled Umber)
1047. Melampsora euphorbiae (Spurge Rust)

I dont think it was much a challenge doing the same square a second time and I didn't have it in me nor possibly the time,  to try and beat the previous attempt.

I still need a challenge however and to move out of my square/comfort zone,  so I think  I'll do something on the lines that Seth suggested and hit the coast. I need to get my overall pan-list up which is sorely lacking things with marina, maritima etc in the vernacular. Want to here a confession? - I have NEVER done any rockpooling, anywhere! After some thought I'm going to try for 2,000 species but all within VC66 and all within 100m  of the high water mark and not venturing more than 100m inland at the Tyne/Wear/Tees estuaries. It could get a bit frustrating not being able to count many of seabirds or cetaceans that are too far out but I've seen most of them I could expect to see so it will not be a big problem. I have no idea whatsoever if it's its possible to get 2,000 or if in fact it will be dead easy but certainly different from what I'm used to.

That's me sorted for 2018


Keith Robson
NZ2549 - VC66 (Waldridge)

Dalgety Bay - Schoenomyza litorella, a muscid fly

A very peculiar member of the Muscidae and a bizarre coincidence. Looking at the Muscidae list of most commonly recorded species I hadn't seen I googled some of the "gaps", once of which was this fly. Friday evening I pull a square of plastazote from the shelf and there it is! Sat there ignominiously bypassed by many others since September

Sehr shoen indeed :)

Number(s)

1015

diptera

Shoenomyza litorella

A muscid fly

Dalgety Bay, Fife - the smallest update

Went vismigging for Waxwings. No Waxwings. Did get a Buzzard finally though!

Had a quick think to see if I could come up with 10 bird species that are still possible. It was shockingly easy!

Long-tailed Duck	winter visitor small numbers
Little Auk	easterlies
GN Diver	winter visitor small numbers
Waxwing	winter visitor small numbers
Crossbill	passage migrant
Peregrine Falcon	resident wader hunter
Reed Bunting	late year passage migrant small numbers
Treecreeper	had in adjacent square
Slav Grebe	winter visitor small numbers
Barnacle Goose	occasional

01/12/2017

1014

Buteo buteo

Common Buzzard

Dalgety Bay, Fife - Fossombronia pusilla

Found one of my favourite liverworts yesterday in NT1683 (349 spp.). Not in my 1km square but hopefully can inspire Seth to get that last 20-odd species sorted out ;)

Look at those spores and elaters - fantastic!

Dalgety Bay, Fife - a few additions

Keeping the ball slowly rolling I've been picking up bits of this and that.

A Cladonia found on the edge of a lawn turned out to be C.chlorophaea. Suspected Phaonia pallida from a water trap in Bathing House Wood was confirmed by its underwing setae, and a couple of female Anthomyia turned out to be festiva. All these were preceded by a Field Blewit which was found in the grassy triangle behind Lumsdaine Drive.

Waxwings still not here and no sign of the Hawfinch invasion here yet, though I haven't been out much in the mornings due to other commitments. You never know!

P+ red

1010	Lepista nuda	Field Blewit
1011	Cladonia chlorophaea	A lichen
1012	Phaonia pallida	A muscid fly
1013	Anthomyia festiva	A flower fly

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)

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

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

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

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