Garden Bioblitz 2015

The Safari wasn't expecting to get out today but did want to get involved with the national Garden Bioblitz.

Overnight heavy rain was forecast so we didn't put the moth trap out so missed a species or two there, then our attention got diverted and we forgot to put the stealth-cam out - dohhh!

We started with the plants as they're pretty reliable. When we moved here a dozen or so years ago the garden was just a mass of concrete and it took a couple of years to get it all broken up, removed and the soil dug over. since them the larger trees, shrubs and climbers have been planted along with a few perennials, the rest have been 'donated' by the birds, the wind or the seeds in the seed-bank.

There are British Bluebells, Spanish Bluebells and hybrids, all arrived of their own accord. These are proper job British ones.

The planted Cotoneaster has just about covered the garage wall and when the sun came out it was covered in Honey Bees and a few Tree Bees too.

Herb Robert is everywhere!

Ox-eye Daisies are variable in their abundance, some years there's loads others not so many. This year is one of those 'other' years. This one is the most open one in the garden, they're quite late this season.

Invertebrates were hard to come by and we thought our best chance of success would be to check out the other garage wall where the sun was shining. Always a good spot for finding jumping spiders and Ruby Tailed Wasps. There were neither but a bee started buzzing around our ear, stepping back to get a better look as soon as we were out of its way it went into the bottom corner bamboo tube in our 'bug hotel'. It's been there three years and until today there's not been a bee near it! So as you can imagine we were pretty chuffed.

We set up the camera and tripod as near as we could and stood back with the remote control release.

We still haven't got it quite right but now we know it's there we intend to have some more sessions in the next few weeks.

In the afternoon the wind picked up, the clouds rolled in and temperature dropped so the lack of invert activity was even less likely to improve. Anyway Wifey started doing a job that required nits n bobs of assistance so that was the end of our bioblitzing for the rest of the day. We didn't get much done but at least the bee in the bamboo was a really big highlight.

Where to next? Tomorrow looks like being windy but not as wet as originally forecast so we might get out somewhere.

In the meantime let us know who's crawling down the holes in your outback.