Dalgety Bay - kissing frogs

Yesterday (as today) I didn't have much time in the field. As a temporarily single dad I had lunchtime to gather material and oodles of time in the study once the manchild was tucked up in bed. The priority therefore was to gather material! With a reachable target I went to the ground game and gathered promising leaf and wood litter for later perusal. This is a methodology I learned on a microfungi weekend I had with some fungus-bothering friends and very productive it can be too.

On this occasion I was spending a lot of time kissing frogs to find a prince. Some species were too immature to separate (there are two very similar pyrenomycetes which like sycamore petioles) while some pluriverous fungi which might have been doable evaded me. I found one birch leaf in the mix which is normally good for a couple of banker species. It was bare. I still managed to put up 3 new species which pushed me within reach of success.

Then, when I woke up this morning it dawned on me that I have two enormous birch trees in my garden! Bingo! Both common species of fallen birch leaves were quickly rounded up before the school run. Three to go. Surely nothing could go wrong.

The Mycena below is the kind of thing you think you have no chance of identifying. It's the Dewdrop Bonnet and on its stipe it has tortuose cystidia. These hold onto water droplets and so are responsible for both its English and scientific names. I've already recorded it but it's a lovely thing.

Botryobasidium aureum (conidial stage)

Hemimycena tortuosa

Birch leaf Gnomonia and Venturia

Dicyrtomina fusca

Numbers:

326	*	fungus	Botryobasidium aureum	A corticioid fungus
327	*	collembola	Dicyrtomina fusca	A springtail
328		fungus	Merismodes anomala	A fungus
329		fungus	Gnomonia alni-viridis	a pyrenomycete
330		fungus	Venturia ditricha	a pyrenomycete

Dalgety Bay - last orders!

1.5 days to go until January closes and 333 is definitely doable!

 A somewhat disappointing night at the microscope revealed lots of duplication but some headway was made during the whole of yesterday. An empty moth trap (no by-catch) edged the chances further away. This morning it was 14 species to go in two days ("far from impossible").

Lunchtime was very kind with a good variety of lichen and fungus ID'd in the field and taken for this evening's edutainment

One of the things I experienced yesterday was that whereas last year I could turn over most logs and stones on my square in a lunchtime, and I knew where they were, this square has a much greater collection of deadwood and stones both and so there's no way I can cover them all, even in one woodland. Bodes well for the rest of the year. (edit: this continues as fallen and damp deadwood produces the goods with a smorgasbord of fungi - I've reached last year's June total)

Eutypella scoparia

Numbers:

310		flowering plant	Lonicera periclymenum	Honeysuckle
311		crustacean	Philoscia muscorum	Common Striped Woodlouse
312		fungus	Tubaria furfuracea	A mushroom
313		spider	Kaestneria pullata	A linyphiid spider
314		flowering plant	Viola riviniana	Common Dog-violet
315		millipede	Brachysdesmus superus	A millipede
316		fungus	Exidia glandulosa	A fungus
317		fungus	Eutypella scoparia	A fungus
318		fungus	Hypoxylon multiforme	A fungus
319		lichen	Lecidella elaeochroma	A lichen

320		lichen	Rhizocarpon geographicum	A lichen
321		lichen	Lepraria incana	A lichen
322		fungus	Bisporella citrina	Lemon Disco
323		fungus	Eutypa maura	A fungus
324		fungus	Byssomerulius corium	Netted Crust
325		lichen	Arthonia radiata	A lichen

Addendum - best birds seen from bedroom window -
Little Green Bee-eater - Dubai
Pied and Pygmy Kingfishers - Pretoria
Laughing Dove, Alpine Swift, ST. Eagle - Istanbul
Stork nest on roof - Poland (noisy!)
Waxwings - Scotland (well, why not)

Bedroom window goodies

A few nice birds from my bedroom window today - male Hen Harrier, 6 Whooper Swans, 3 Cranes, 2 Greylags, several hundred Pink-feet, Barn Owl, 2 Marsh Harriers, Shelduck, 2 Egyptian Geese and 3 Buzzards.

Dalgety Bay - stretching the (many, many) legs

A good weekend, especially for myriapods, took me comfortably over the 300 target. Partly this was a fortunate run of good luck and partly this was due to Seth setting a rip-roaring pace which encouraged me to try to keep up! It doesn't hurt that many of the species I met as new last year can be easily confirmed this year instead of labouring for hours over them. Lifer ratio is running at about 6%, as might be expected in the early days of new year, and nothing spectacular has been encountered so far.

The bryophyte total of last year has already been passed. The myriapod total is now equalled and with some easily encountered species not listed yet I fully expect to beat that too. It took me until March to count this many fungi last year! Probably over the next three days I'll major on microfungi. Since my wife's away I'll focus on gathering material for those long nights in.

Numbers:

298		diptera	Lonchoptera lutea	A fly
299		coleoptera	Nebria brevicollis	A ground beetle
300	*	spider	Monocephalus fuscipes	A linyphiid spider
301		mollusc	Lauria cylindracea	Common Chrysalis Snail
302		bird	Columba livia	Feral Pigeon
303		mollusc	Lehmannia marginata	Tree Slug
304		collembola	Tomoceros longicornis	A springtail
305		millipede	Ommatoiulus sabulosus	Striped Millipede
306	*	millipede	Cylindroiulus brittanicus	A millipede
307		millipede	Julus scandinavius	A millipede
308		moss	Platyhypnidium riparioides	A moss

New spider for the garden

Been poorly for the past 10 days, so not much recording recently. Pleased to get a new money spider for the garden this morning, Diplocephalus cristatus. A small linyphiid, not much hope of identifying it without a microscope. A couple of White-fronted Geese amongst the more regular Pink-footed Geese yesterday. Takes garden list to 1726.

Hawfinch and updates

Very pleased to finally get a showing of some Hawfinch in the square - part of this years amazing influx.
Attached is my 'record shot' Not a good photo (perhaps Seth and I can start another challenge for the worst, but still recognisable, photo of a rare or scarce!) but I'm happy with it! And Hawfinch's don't often let you get very close.

As for the update the Yeovil square has now got to 148 species recorded and Eype 124. (Will add a more detailed breakdown next time)

My first attempt at using Blogger, don't have much clue, but here goes:

Horsey Corner (TG4523, East Norfolk) is a 1 km square close to the sea to the east and the Norfolk Broads to the west. It's a small hamlet surrounded by agricultural land with typical broadland drainage dykes. Most of the square is part of a large estate which doesn't allow access, so the vast majority of the records in this area come from my garden. My 2018 garden list is currently 221 species, broken down as follows:

Fungi/Lichens	3
Bryophytes	3
Vascular Plants	28
Molluscs	2
Arachnids	23
Myriapods	2
Crustaceans	2
Springtails	3
Insects: Hemipteroids	18
Insects: Coleoptera	42
Insects: Diptera	25
Insects: Moths	4
Insects: RSO	2
Birds	60
Mammals	4
Grand Totals	221

Dalgety Bay - Creeping up on 300

With much improved weather and no domestic duties to perform at lunchtime I was able to go out and play in the spring sunshine, vastly increasing my chances of tipping over 300 this month. After finding Strigia maritima in December 2016 I finally re-connected with it in my new square after failing to for the entirety of 2017! A very centipede-y couple of days.

Last night I was able to figure out the 10mm long Geophilus truncorum, which is new to me. Maybe I'll even start to figure out how to handle millipedes, one of which I still have issues with despite its apparently being an adult male with appendages.

Geophilus truncorum

Geophilus truncorum

Nemastoma bimaculatum

Strigia maritima

Numbers:

284	*	fungus	Stegonosporium pyriforme	A coelomycete
285		coleoptera	Omalium riparium	A Rove Beetle
286		moss	Bryoerythrophyllum recurvirostrum	A moss
287	*	centipede	Geophilus truncorum	A centipede
288		harvestman	Nemastoma bimaculata	A harvestman
289		diptera	Phaonia subventa	A muscid fly
290		centipede	Strigia maritima	A centipede
291		flowering plant	Narcissus pseudonarcissus	Daffodil

* = lifer

(might as well throw this out there because it will be obvious to someone else! I had it down as Craspedosoma rawlinsii to begin with but I can't convince myself)

Dalgety Bay - In the Garage

Earlier in the year I noticed that my garden rubbish bin had a collected smear of rotting grass on its rim which had acquired some dipteran larvae and even pupae. So I scraped it off and stuck it in a jar.

Last night when sorting stuff for kitchen work I noticed the jar and had a peek inside to find that I had birthed at least a Sylvicola fenestralis. I'll have another look later to see what else may be in there.

Numbers:

280		lep-moth	Rusina ferruginea	Brown Rustic
281		hymenoptera	Neuroterus anthracinus	Oyster-gall Causer
282		diptera	Sylvicola fenestralis	A fly
283		lichen	Lecanora soralifera	A lichen

Dalgety Bay - Gorse Code

Quickie update with a typical trio of gorse beetles beaten out of coastal gorse (no Lonchoptera though - surpising, though it was very cold). A routine trio of Micrambe ulicis, Andrion regensteinense and Exapion ulicis were extracted.

A few other bits and pieces too, including getting ahead of the game on moths with a Brown Rustic caterpillar in a woodland tussock.

A mob of guys arrived at my house this morning at 8:00 and by 8:30 most of kitchen was gone. I'm optimistic that they might not even completely kill off listing for the rest of January, though I'll be removing wallpaper for any spare time I would have had this evening.

New total 278. 300 not out of the question by end of January but it would be a good result.

Lovely Caloplaca (nowBlastenia) crenularia

Exapion ulicis

Andrion regensteinense

[edit]
thanks to John Langmaid on the facebook uk micro moths page I can now also add Caloptilia rufipennella beaten from gorse. Gorse and Yew seem to be very good for harbouring wintering small inverts.279!