Introduction
Today was day 1 of this weekends National Bio Garden Blitz 2013 run by volunteers and supported by The Wildlife Trust, British Trust for Ornithology, Bristol Natural History Consortium, National Trust, Biological Records Centre, Natural England Wildlife Gardening Forum, and many others.
The idea is that over this weekend everybody gets out in their gardens and records all the wildlife they can find, including plants that have found their way into the garden by their own accord. Once you've recorded what you've seen and perhaps photographed it, this information is then uploaded onto an online form using iRecord.
What did we find!The day was sunny and dry which was a blessing, but that cold northeasterly wind was pretty bitter. When the sun went in it was definitely brrr. Anyway Dawn and I thought we'd give a go and I've never seen Dawn so enthusiastic about bugs. In fact of all the species recorded, dawn had found well over half of them.
Despite the late Spring and the fact that the only plant in flower was a Bleeding Heart, we did find quite a few creepy crawlies including a Lesser Stag Beetle which had taken up residence on our Ash tree seat by the pond. The bark is starting to peel away after 3 years of weathering and this beetle found it most acceptable. Other creatures found around the log were Woodlice, a House Spider (Tegenaria duellica), a Lace Web Spider (Amaurobius fenestralis) and Brandling Worms (Eisenia fetida).
Today was day 1 of this weekends National Bio Garden Blitz 2013 run by volunteers and supported by The Wildlife Trust, British Trust for Ornithology, Bristol Natural History Consortium, National Trust, Biological Records Centre, Natural England Wildlife Gardening Forum, and many others.
The idea is that over this weekend everybody gets out in their gardens and records all the wildlife they can find, including plants that have found their way into the garden by their own accord. Once you've recorded what you've seen and perhaps photographed it, this information is then uploaded onto an online form using iRecord.
What did we find!The day was sunny and dry which was a blessing, but that cold northeasterly wind was pretty bitter. When the sun went in it was definitely brrr. Anyway Dawn and I thought we'd give a go and I've never seen Dawn so enthusiastic about bugs. In fact of all the species recorded, dawn had found well over half of them.
Despite the late Spring and the fact that the only plant in flower was a Bleeding Heart, we did find quite a few creepy crawlies including a Lesser Stag Beetle which had taken up residence on our Ash tree seat by the pond. The bark is starting to peel away after 3 years of weathering and this beetle found it most acceptable. Other creatures found around the log were Woodlice, a House Spider (Tegenaria duellica), a Lace Web Spider (Amaurobius fenestralis) and Brandling Worms (Eisenia fetida).
Lesser Stag Beetle
House Spider
Lace Web Spider
Brandling Worm (Eisenia fetida)
There were a lot of flies about and think we counted at least 7 species. Greenbottle, Blue Bottle, House Fly, Saw-Fly and three I've yet to identify. A large Hoverfly was also seen around the pond and on the Brambles and was identified as a Helophilus pendulus.
Greenbottle Flies
Fly sp.
Fly sp.
Fly sp.
Hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus)
Micro moth (Adela fibulella)
There were a few slugs around and we came across a Common Keeled Slug (Tandonia budapestensis) and a Large Red Slug (Arion ater) Its body is uniform in colour but can be either orange-red or black.
Common Keeled Slug (Tandonia budapestensis)
Large Red Slug (Arion ater)
In other parts of the garden we found a Running Crab Spider (Philodromus dispar) just before it headed under the garden shed and in the compost bin were hundreds of Ants and Woodlice.
Running Crab Spider (Philodromus dispar)
Woodlice
Black Aphids
Ant milking a Black Aphid
White-lipped Snail (Cepaea hortensis)
White-lipped Snail (Cepaea hortensis)
Spotted Wolf Spider (Pardosa amentata)
In the end we came across 23 different species, I wonder if we will be able to add to that on Sunday.