Garden Bioblitz 2015

We've spent Saturday doing the Garden Bioblitz, where you list the wildlife in your garden and record it online on iRecord. To be fair, we didn't do it all day, but popped in and out throughout the day. We did quite well with 58 identified species (although some of our ids may be a bit dubious!). We also have a number of finds that we couldn't identify and have asked for some help with, so that total will hopefully still rise.

It was a bit disappointing that our Hedgehog didn't put in an appearance, but we did see some bats (probably Pipistrelle bats) and found all sorts of lovely mini-beasties. I was also surprised about how many wildflowers (aka weeds) had made our garden their home! It was fun to do and we'll have another go next year and see if we can find even more.

We found:

• Mammals: Bats (probably Pipistrelle)
• Birds: Blue tit, Great tit, Sparrow, Robin, Blackbird, Starling, Jackdaw, Dunnock, Woodpigeon, Collard Dove, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Wren and Red Kite.

Red Kite

Robin - couldn't quite work out what we were doing all day!

One of many baby Starlings in the garden at the moment

• Butterflies: Small White, Large White, Orange Tip
• Moths: Common Swift, Flame Shoulder, Heart and Dart, Mint Moth, Light Brown Apple Moth

Light Brown Apple Moth

• Spiders: Wolf Spider, Purse Web Spider

Wolf Spider

Purse Web Spider

• Bees: Honey Bee, Tree Bumblebee, White-tailed Bumblebee

Tree Bumblebee

White-tailed Bumblebee

• Other Mini-beasts: Black Millipede, Brown Centipede, Pill Woodlouse, Common Woodlouse, Shiny Woodlouse, Garden Slug, Dusky Slug, Ants, Garden Snail, Earthworm, Baby Forest Bug, Red-headed Cardinal Beetle, Aphids, Cuckoo-spit, 2 different flies

Just a few Woodlice

Cuckoo Spit

Dusky Slugs

Aphid - we found plenty of those!

Immature Forest Bug

Red-Headed Cardinal Beetle

• Plants: Ash seedling, Horsetail, Ivy, Bramble, Herb Robert, Dandelion, Nettles, Elder, Honeysuckle, Ribwort Plantain, Woody Nightshade, Sticky Weed, Sowthistle, Red Campion

Horsetail

Ribwort Plantain

• Moss: Capillary Thread Moss

1/6/15: Updated to add the Light Brown Apple Moth (identification from iSpot) and a couple of flies (Helina and Phaonia)

Helina

Phaonia