100 species for Garden Bioblitz 2016?

The Safari spend all day yesterday in the garden getting sunburned and recording the wildlife we found for this year's Garden Bioblitz. Crikey it was warm out there with glorious wall to wall non-stop sunshine - like a proper real old-fashioned summer's day!

We started early with the moths. The neighbours had been away so we were able to put the big light on and with a warm, still, muggy night had the best catch we've had for a couple of years. Once all our kit laid out we were ready to open the trap.

Of course there were a few of the immigrant Diamondbacks, some didn't make it into the trap but were found nearby on the walls and in the vegetation.

Inside the trap there were some species we've not seen that often at Base Camp, like this Figure of 80.

Middle Barred Minors turn up more often.

As do Poplar Greys.

This one was a bit flighty and escaped but fortunately landed first on the lid of our recycling bin. Had it gone straight to ground we don't think we'd have found him.

Delving deeper into the trap it was great to see one of favourite moths in there, Green Silver Lines, another species that doesn''t find its way into the trap very often.

But the top spot went to this beauty, not one but two of them!

They really are something special. 
As ever there were some unIDd moths in there so if anyone can help please do.

Pug 1 - we seem to have developed 'Pug blindness'

Pug 2

Probably a worn Small Square Spot

Micro 1

Micro 2 - Now IDd for us as Cochylis atricapitana

We ended up having a moth-off or game of moth poker with our brother who lives in north eastern Italy and has recorded more species of butterfly within a kilometer of his front door than there are in the whole of the British Isles! We were holding back the Green Silver Lines to trump him but the best he could offer was Latticed Heath, a species we see too, only a few hundred yards away along the North Blackpool Pond Trail.

Once the moths were sorted (25 species including the unIDs) it was time to look at the birds

Fly-overs like  the Swifts and Sparrowhawk and this Herring Gull don't count

Woodpigeons do though

We heard a Dunnock and the Blackcap singing nearby but not within the confines of the garden so they can't be counted either but we were quite happy to add them to the page in the notebook.

14 bird species visited, added to the moths makes a running total of 39 species.

Time to check out the vegetation. We counted everything green that hasn't been planted by us or obviously planted by previous occupants. 

Round the back of the garage our wild area gave us 17 species of greenery in its few square yards, we might have missed a couple too.

There is a path you just can't see it from this angle

Herb Bennett was almost totally absent last year, but there's several specimens both in front and back gardens this year.

Both the common species of buttercups are present, this is the taller Meadow Buttercup, but one species we didn't find was Daisy, then again we don't have a lawn.

Not countable but nicely catching the sunlight was a Clematis seedhead, often known as Old Man's Beard for obvious reasons.

We found 29 species of plants and grasses making 68 species and counting.

Two of the plants had leaf miners, the Creeping Buttercups and Cowslips, which leads us nicely to the invertebrates.

While photographing this Garden Cross Spider catching a tiny fly and then continuing to spin its web

when we disturbed this very long legged Cranefly

We had hoped to get a pic of the Ruby Tailed Wasp that occasionally frequents the garage wall but as ever we missed it with the camera. We did see a new very small bee, anyone got an idea as to its ID?

Our regular solitary bee has completed its brood tube and is now attending the smaller one above it.

After the excitement of the solitary bees we turned our attention to getting some pics of the several species of Bumble Bees in the garden. 

Only 20 identifiable species of invertebrates were found and no snails, slugs or worms - it really was that hot and dry! The highlights were a Small White laying eggs on Wifey's new Nasturtiums and the garden's first Speckled Wood of the year. 

The total now is up to 88 species., what chance another 12 to make the ton.

As we were totting up we felt a faint tickle on our leg and looked down to see a tiny Crab Spider walking up towards our knee.

No, it's not on our leg for the pic

But what about those 12 extra species? Well there's the moss growing by the kitchen wall and some lichens on the front wall and there's a whole host of little flies we've no idea what they might be. There wasn't that many hoverflies out either, where are they? We're sure with a bit more effort and some better ID skills and a little luck with the weather 100 species should be possible.

So we didn't get 100 species, so what we had great fun finding the 88 species we did find.
Where to next? Still at Base Camp tomorrow so we'll have another look around and see what we can find.
In the meantime let us know who's climbing to giddy heights in your outback.

We didn't get em all!

The Safari had a mixed bag today. The Peregrine was seen on the tower on the drive up the hill. On the prom R'Ouzel Puddle has been drained, filled in and resown with grass, but a new puddle has developed a little further down which held a (local?) Pied Wagtail this morning; still haven't seen a Blackbird on those new grassy areas!

A marine biology student and her tutor came in for a bit of advice/ideas about her dissertation and itt would seem that the distribution of the Sabellaria reefs is going to be well analysed over the course of the winter months.

The Young Uns came round to do a bit of work in the Untidy Garden getting it ready for the autumn, it is currently swarming with hoverflies at the slightest hint of sunshine. They found a roosting pug which we all thought was a worn Double Striped Pug. But we could all be wrong.

Only a few bees were around in the mostly dull conditions but this Buff Tailed Bumble Bee was truly enormous and not at all happy with our close approach with the camera, persistently waving her middle leg in the air as a warning for us to back off. A pose we somehow failed to capture on digital film!

After the borders had been attended to it was time to see how many 3 Spined Sticklebacks were left in the pond after the last 'battle' in the 'war' against stickles. A few days after our last netting session we counted about half a dozen still in the pond but yesterday we had a slow walk around the pond and counted at least 30!

With three of  us netting we soon had 50 in the bucket! No wonder there is virtually no invertebrate life in the pond these days.

We left the pond to settle and the fish to forget about the nets and went to have some lunch. After three quarter of an hour we crept up to the pond again and started fishing. before long we had added at least another 30-40 to the bucket!!! All were released unharmed to a site where there are plenty of their brethren and they can do little harm to the ecosystem...But how many do you think we'll see when we get to work tomorrow morning? There's bound to be more than two and if we don't get them out there won't be any pond life for the kiddies to study next season. We'll have another netting session later in the autumn and another around Easter just to make sure we either got them all or have the 'starting' population as low as possible to give the other animals a chance.

Next it was a site visit to our now well grown, and difficult to crash through, Water Vole site. And what a sight it was; the Purple Loosestrife was simply stunning.

One of the main reasons for going was to check on the locals and see if they had done the jobs we'd asked them too a while back - disappointingly they hadn't although that could have been due to the high water levels in the pond after all the recent rain. We couldn't find any Common Meadow Rue either despite it being quite numerous when we were last here, but it did look like Meadowsweet had had a bumper year as had the Spearmint. If access was easier we're sure this would be a crackin place to put a moth trap out.

The dull blustery conditions kept the larger insect down but we did find a nice bright male Common Darter who wouldn't stay still enough for a pic and later a stonking Brown Hawker.

Lifting the sheet put down for amphibians and reptiles only produced Red Ants and ground beetles although a very neat grass nest suggested a Short Tailed Field Vole had been active recently.

But what about the Water Voles - well we still haven't actually seen any, nor heard them 'plop' at this site but we did find some nice feeding signs and a latrine, in the pond too rather than the ditch so our habitat works have been successful but we think we'll need to put up a trail-cam to stand any chance of actually 'seeing' the cutesy little blighters!

So not a bad day's safari-ing and it just goes to show you mightn't see what you want to see but there is ALWAYS something of interest to be seen!

Where to next? Gotta be something on the sea tomorrow - we gave it a short go with precious little success this morning but Young UN AB watched a reasonably close Arctic Skua pass by on the rising tide a couple of hours after we'd left.

In the meantime let us know who's eating you out of house and home in your outback,

Posting so early in the morning can only mean one thing

The Safari successfully got the mothy out last night. After watching the rain subside and keeping an eye on several weather forecasts it looked like a once in a blue moon dry night was on the cards.

We approached eagerly in the morning and immediately saw this pug resting on the outside of the box..any ideas...Dean, Jonny S, anyone else?

Inside the trap but above the funnel was this gorgeous Marbled Beauty, three more were hidden in the depths

Five Heart & Darts were secreted in there to but a bit more exciting were these two slightly different Dark Arches.

Better was to come!

At last after a couple or three years absense an Elephant Hawkmoth...

What a stonker!!!

And no micros...had one, probably a Codling Moth but it escaped.

So we had a celebratory cuppa. Why do bread manufacturers make 'Toastie' bread that doesn't fit in a toaster?

Nightmare getting the crumpled slice out!

Where to next? Back later?
In the meantime let us know what was bumbling around in thee darkness in your outback last night.

Blackcap singing in the garden as we're hitting the keys on the keyboard! Garden No 35!
And one from the old days for Anno as promised...hit that bass!

Some seriously good musicians on the studio album