Garden Biodiversity - 365 Challenge - Part 2

As mentioned in a February post I have set myself a little challenge this year to try and spot 365 different species in the garden this year. As I suspected, February and March have been fairly quiet months as I'd added most of the birds I can expect to see in January and its still too early for many insects to be out and about. During the last two months I've managed to bring my total up to 68 species so I'm about 23 species behind schedule!!

New Additions to the List

Amphibians

Common Frog (Rana temporaria)

Common Smooth Newt (Lissotriton vulgaris


Hoverflies

Drone Fly (Eristalis tenax)

Flies

Blue Bottle (Calliphora vomitoria)


Birds

Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes)
Goldcrest (Regulus regulus)
Greenfinch (Carduelis chloris)



Beetles

Black Sexton Beetle (Nicrophorus humator) caught in the moth trap

Other Invertebrates

Pond Skater (Gerris lacustris)

Earwing (Forficula auricularia)

Molluscs

Yellow Slug (Limax flavus)

Bees, Wasps and Ants

Tree Bumble Bee (Bombus hypnorum)
Hairy-footed Flower Bee (Anthophora plumines)
Buff-tailed Bumble Bee (Bombus terrestrial)

Common Wasp (Vespula vulgaris) - not the best of photos but I had no wish to faff around too much with the camera in such close proximity!!!!

Plants

I'm still resisting the temptation to count species planted such as primrose and cowslip!!

Dandelion (Tarraxacum officinale)
Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum)
Hairy Bitter Cress (Cardamine hirsute)


Butterflies

Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae)
Peacock (Inachis io)
Small White (Pieres rapae)


Moths

I think my only chance of reaching 365 species this year is going to rely heavily on moths and this year has got off to a much better starter than last :)

Pale Brindled Beauty (Phigalia pilosaria)

Chestnut (Conistra vaccinii)

Common Quaker (Orthosia cerasi)

Emmelina monodactyla (I won't post photos of all the moths as most of the pictures you've seen before!)

Oak Beauty (Biston strataria)

Dotted Border (Agriopis marginaria)

Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica)

White-shouldered House Moth (Endrosis sarcitrella)

Twin-spotted Quaker(Orthosia munda)

Clouded Drab (Orthosia incerta)

Small Quaker (Orthosia cruda)

Early Grey (Amblyptilia acanthadactyla)

Pine Beauty (Panolis flammea)

Double Striped Pug (Gymnoscelis rufifasciata

Many-plumed Moth (Alucita hexadactyla)



I did see a black millipede which I haven't counted partly because I should have examined it more closely - did you know there are over 60 species of millipede in the UK? !!! and also I've managed to "lose" the photo!

April has got off to a good start and so far I'm back to seeing a species a day. I need to start identifying mosses and lichens this month too.

Apologies for the lack of italics for scientific names - I still can't get Blogger to insert italics and the species are in rather a strange order due to problems with uploading photos in the order I wanted!! Hopefully, identifications are correct but if you spot any errors please let me know!

Garden Moths

There's been a lot of overnight rain recently so I've only put out the moth trap on one occasion since my last post on Garden Moths

Saturday 29th March - GMS Week 5

Minimum Temperature 4.8 degrees centigrade

15w Actinic Skinner Trap


Common Quaker (Orthosia cerasi) x 8

Emmelina monodactyla x 4

Clouded Drab (Orthosia incerta) x 1

Pine Beauty (Panolis flammea) x 1 NFG NFY

Double-striped Pug (Gymnoscelis rufifasciata) x 1 NFY


I was really pleased to trap Pine Beauty - a beautifully marked moth and new for the garden

Double-striped Pug - pugs are not only hard to id but also hard to photo as they never keep still!!

I spotted another new species for the year on the garage window on Monday, 31st March - a Many-plumed Moth (Alucita hexadactla). No photo this time as it flew off the minute I opened the garage door:(

A few Spring Wildflowers plus Daffodils Galore and Return to Berkswell

Every year around this time I try and make a trip to St Giles churchyard Packwood to see primroses and violets and Packwood House for daffodils and lesser celandine so some of you may have seen similar photos in previous years. Last Friday morning (I took D with me) we set off on this annnual "pilgrimage".


St Giles

Unfortunately I've never been able to take a photo that pays justice to the sight of primroses en masse but this gives a very small idea.

Primroses and Violets

A bank covered in primroses and lesser celandine

Lesser celandine

Off then to Packwood which is only about a mile away


Packwood House

Lots of forsythia in flower along the roadside

One of several sundials found at Packwood

The daffodils which grow along banks at the side of the road which runs close to Packwood are a beautiful sight.

Lesser Celandine dot the bank and ditches

We did plan to have lunch at the new cafe at Packwood until I discovered that to get into the tearoom I would have to pay an entrance fee for the grounds for David as he is no longer a member. This would have been fine if we'd had time to look round the grounds but I was anxious to visit a nature reserve to see butterbur before the rain which had been forecast arrived. So that idea was abandoned (rather miffed I missed out on cake though!!).


When I was a child I was always captivated by images of butterbur in one of the widlflower id guides I had and its a species I've never seen in flower. Thanks to Temple Balsall Nature Reserve Blog (please see link on the right under My Blog List) I discovered some years ago that it flowered on the reserve. I've tried to see it the last couple of years but have always been too late and it had gone to "seed". I knew it was in flower at the moment so as the reserve is not far from Packwood that was our next destination.

Temple Balsall Nature Reserve

Dog's Mercury is starting to flower in the hedgerows.

Lesser Celandine (again!!) I love this flower - a real harbinger of Spring :)

This is the marshy hollow on the reserve where the Butterbur grow.

And finally, I got to see this lovely plant in flower - a bit past their best but thankfully not yet gone to seed!

Scarlet Elf-cup growing on a bank near the butterbur

We would have explored more of the reserve but by now we were getting rather hungry and D suggested returning to The Bear at Berkswell for lunch. By this time it was 1.45 and it was a mad dash through the lanes to try and get there for 2.00 p.m. in case they stopped serving food then. We arrived at dead on two o'clock but apparently they serve food until 4.00 p.m. so we needn't have rushed after all!! Oh well, we'll know next time.

The Bear Inn, Berkswell

I know I wrote a post a few weeks back on Berkswell but here's a few items I missed last time.

Village Pump

Beehive Cottage is now being re-thatched

Beautiful old cottage

D was keen to see an old canon (from the Crimean War) which used to be in the pub car park. Eventually we discovered it by Berkswell Museum

Marsh Lane NR, Garden Moths and another plea for help for Badgers

B was on holiday last Monday so I finally persuaded him to take advantage of the joint membership and visit Marsh Lane. The weather was dry but cold with a biting wind.

We walked to the most distant hide - Railway Hide initially. The next three photos show 3 views from the hide of Railway Pool - the last photo has Sidden Hill Wood in the distance.

Green Woodpecker, Shelduck, Redshank, Snipe and a pair of Dabchick were among the highlights of the visit. It was fascinating to watch pairs of Shovelers in courtship display with the male and female circling each other round and round.

I got a slightly better, though still very brief glimpse of the mystery mammals seen on the last trip by Oak Hide. In fact I saw two disappearing rapidly down holes under some tree roots next to the feeding station. Feeders are probably the best clue to their identity and I am 99.9% sure having seen the head of one that they are in fact rats.

It was nice to see dandelions starting to flower.

Brian caught a glimpse of an unidentified butterfly by Oak Hide missed by me as I was too busy looking to see if the rats would re-emerge. Although I did spot one Buff-tailed Bumble Bee.

Three new species were seen for the reserve list

Pied Wagtail (record shot!)

Great Spotted Woodpecker and Stock Dove.

Another record shot this time of Lapwing

I'm fast coming even more to the conclusion that the 70-300mm lens is a waste of time at this reserve - the birds are just too far away. I'm still trying to think of a way of justifying the purchase of a bridge camera because I suspect the bird shots would be better.

Anyway, B enjoyed the reserve even though he's not really that interested in ducks, geese and waders so I suspect when we next go together we'll be visiting Sidden Hill Wood as he finds woodland birds far more interesting!!!!



Garden Moths

I've only trapped a few times since the last post on moths mainly because of the colder temperatures and overnight rain. The sessions failed to produce any new species for the year.

Monday 17th March Min temp 5.9

Early Grey x 1
Clouded Drab x1


Wednesday, 19th March Min temp 7.3

Common Quaker x 4

Sunday 23rd March (GMS week 4) Min temp -1.9

Early Grey x 1
Hebrew Character x 1
Clouded Drab x 2
Common Quaker x 1


Clouded Drab

Badgers

We are still waiting for DEFRA to publish the IEP report into last year's pilot slaughters and for Paterson to make a decision on whether he is going to roll-out the cull. Although according to one of the Sunday newspapers it appears the slaughters will continue in Somerset and Gloucestershire and may also commence in Dorset which is very sad news.

I know many of you are strongly opposed to the unnecessary, cruel and unscientific slaughters and the Wildlife Trusts have started a campaign where you can send a ready prepared email to David Cameron asking him to drop the cull. It only takes a minute to add a few of your personal details and send. Here's the link - sorry still can't get them to work so please just cut and paste

www.wildlifetrusts.org/dropthecull

The Humane Society International also has a ready prepared email to send this time to George Eustice and DEFRA telling him that humaneness matters to you. Not sure how this link will turn out as I have had to copy and paste myself! -its too long to remember!!!

http://action.hsi.org/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=104&ea.campaign.id=26640&ea.tracking.id=website

The more emails DC and DEFRA receive about this the more they will realise how unpopular their actions are.


Many thanks :)

Also I was sent a link last weekend to a badger video on you-tube of footage shot by Steve Hawkes of the Warwickshire Badger Group. The video has some lovely footage of cubs and is set to a song written and performed by Shirley Higton - be warned though the music is very moving and heartwrenching and you might need a box of tissues! The badgers are filmed at the sett I was privileged to visit last year.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USMv7n3wB0s&feature=youtu.be