I started checking and double-checking my species spreadsheets in readiness for uploading onto this site and took the rather unusual (for me) action of striking off various plant species from the tally. So far I've gone backwards!

I've removed the likes of Swedish Whitebeam, Rose of Sharon, Italian Alder, Shasta Daisy and Garden Pansy. Can I honestly say that the trees were self-seeded not planted? And the flowers, genuine escapees or council plantings gone wild? I was brutal.

A total of 25 species came off, although Oregon Grape went back on once I'd chased the record (clearly bird-sown miles from the nearest garden) and 'Whitebeam X' also went on, pending official naming. Yep, I have a tree NEW TO SCIENCE on my list - thanks to Mark Telfer for pointing it out to me. One of just 2 or 3 plants currently known, all on the same site. Wild Service-tree appears to be one of the parents but no longer occurs on site.

I also removed three inverts: Horse Leech (can I honestly rule out other species? Nope!), Tubifex Worm (again, can I rule out others of the genus? Nope!) and, rather surprisingly, German Wasp. I can't locate a record and can't remember ever 100% IDing one. So it too came off. Puzzlingly I made my total 3600 but this site automatically counted up and made it 3601.Back to the calculator one last time....