Cullaloe project begins artistic phase ...

Spring Haiku

Emerging, small leaves
Reach up between the red stones
Sip the pale sunlight

Springtime surge

A fairly bright morning at Cullaloe this morning, with the sun weakly trying to push through a morning haziness. I just noticed that a Cormorant yesterday was a year tick for the reserve but today saw singing Yellowhammer and Reed Bunting and northbound Lesser Black-backed Gull was an addition to the list too.

Meadowsweet

Went looking for two spp at lunchtime - one an extreme long shot and the other a certainty some time soon (if not now). Scarlet elf-cup was the extreme long shot - and as expected, I didn't find it! The other was Cow Parsley. For my efforts I ran into some emerging Meadowsweet, and I think this looks like Cow Parsley, but I'm not sure, so I'll leave it to grow a bit more.

I also picked up a fungus, albeit a less showy one. It's nice though, and will certainly be a year tick and a new species IF I can identify it.

There was also an Alchemilla sp., probably glabra, but it's not developed enough and it too will come. don't know what's up with the shaky photos. Maybe it was darker than I thought under the rainclouds.

Coverage from GPS

From tracks recorded on GPS, these are the areas I know I have been in, leaving a large area on the northern boundary of the reserve untouched. Over the course of the year I will visit it all at various times.Each time I stray into new territory I find something new, not surprisingly.

Round up of numbers as at end of February. With a target of 500, expanded a little to 525 to allow for failures, I am about 2/5 of the way there. We're in a lull between winter and spring but it's an OK start I think. To reach a total of 500 I need to record 1.04 species/day for the rest of the year, which sounds very do-able. I've recorded hardly any vascular plants yet - even ignoring largely trees which I know the ID of so far. Birds are going as expected, but then I have enough experience to guess that accurately, and now I have the water key the water levels should be ideal for picking up more migrant waders. Can't believe I haven't seen a deer yet!

With three official moth nights and a recently acquired moth trap (thank you, DD) a target of 75 lepidoptera should prove cautious. Other inverts may depend on luring some expert help, although I have already found some new ones for me - just takes some time to establish IDs on them.

Efforts since I started all this nonsense last year have raised the species list overall for the reserve from something in the 600s to nearly 900 - not all my own records. I really hope to take that to 1000 this year or next. Some of the species I have added are very common - just not looked for.

	2014	2014	Target	% of
	Target	Actual	left	target
Birds	90	51	39	56
Vert other	5	1	4	20
Lepidopt	75	0	75	0
Invert other	50	5	45	10
Vascular	200	31	169	15
Bryophytes	50	80	-30	160
Fungi	50	14	36	28
Lichens	5	3	2	60
	525	185	340	35

Days left: 302
Species left: 315
Rate required: 1.04/day

Tachypodoiulus niger, White-legged Snake Millipede

Found under a rock, this millipede coils like a sweet, with a black spiral and white legs. I think it doesn't have a confusion species, but if it turns out to have then I might have to revisit it

Tachypodoiulus niger, White-legged Snake Millipede

Considering Cylindroiulus londinensis, I thought it looked like we were going to the microscope and keys, but aha! you can actually see the mucronate telson in the lower photo, so I think we're ok!

Useful link

Cross posting bryophyte

A new species for me and for the reserve - found it in a couple of places. Interesting in the field, but even more so under the microscope. Creeping towards 100 bryophytes for CLNR!

Ulota phyllantha