April 2014

24th April 2014 - Cornwall Round-up

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Right, been back for a couple of days and all new species are tallied up and on the various lists. Seeing as Sam and I are packing the flat up next week I've left the Telferscope, entomological gear and books in Cornwall with Danny. So I won't be doing very much natural history stuff at all for the remainder of April. Additions to the list range from algae inside sea anemones through to Smooth Snake, Sea Daffodil through to Lesser Horseshoe Bat. Variety is the spice of life(rs)! Big hits included a session rockpooling combined with a couple of sessions sand sieving at low tide and a big...

SPORTING SUB LISTS

First game of season on sunday for the MCC weather permitting, let's face it plenty of time to stop and stare in the gentlemans's game. So how about best records whilst at a cricket match?? Our square at Medstead has been colonised recently by Andrena cineraria, Cuckoo regularly strikes up esp. when I come into bat!! . The pitch in Pirbright in Surrey is a great place for Chamomile and marsh pennywort is also abundant in the outfield! Ripley CC has a new plant for Britain at silly mid-off (Soliva valdiviana). Arundel's ground used to have Field Cricket!! Obviously some Golf...

Finding a Dor Key

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Submitted by Skev on

Been trying to sort out this dor beetle that I found around deer dung yesterday in VC55, using the RES Key (Jessop 1986). Struggled with that, trying to work out what tibial carina are, what they look like and whether mine had them. Better results using the Mike Hackston key suggested by Martin Harvey, and comparison of the mandlbles to the illustrated Beetle News newsletters. I've now convinced myself that this is indeed Geotrupes stercorarius - the Dor Beetle.

22nd April - back from Cornwall

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Well, I've had a cracking week down in Cornwall with Danny. The ladies probably had enough of our antics after the first morning, truth be told - but Dan's 2 year old daughter stuck with it better than hoped for, the wee trooper. She has quite a few unusual species on her list, we may see her enter the rankings on this site as soon as she learns how to read and write!!!

I'm still going through the list of additions. Somewhere in the region of 45 species, I think. Sami and I are off to New Zealand on 1st May and will be homeless when we come back (the tenancy agreement on our rented...

Fish (I'm not good with titles)

I mentioned on the facebook page recently about my aim to improve my fish species but with less than conventional manners. This has led to me enlisting the help of a tech savvy friend to get cameras underwater. After a couple of false starts we managed to get this view of brook lamprey. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6G8lHpOKL8

As you can see we need a bit of practice getting the camera where we want it whilst fighting the current but I'm quite pleased with the results. 

Also managed to film pike and some...

Looking for the Townhall Clock

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Submitted by neilmoths on

Moschatel or Townhall Clock, Adoxa moschatellina

For the first time in ages, I had a couple of hours available today to get out and look for things, so I went looking for Moschatel, also known as Townhall Clock.  This is not a common species in Buckinghamshire, and is in flower now, so worth having a look for it, if you have not seen it before.  This was a new species for me today!  It gets its name...

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