Great Yorkshire Country Count

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From midday yesterday to midday today has been an event where Yorkshire people have been encouraged to spend some time observing nature and recording what we have seen.
My daughter and I have spent most of the last 36hrs doing just that. We were up before sunrise yesterday to check the moth trap and back to bed at 6 this morning after checking it again. We have had a total of 6 hrs sleep throughout the time: so far that is but daughter is nodding a bit and I am drinking coffee :o).

We recorded and uploaded over 80 organisms that we have seen just in the garden. We had to upload photographic records so some of the birds didn’t get included as we couldn’t get decent photos.

There were quite a few ‘firsts’ including the currant clearwing moth. A black and yellow longhorn beetle so called because it is black and yellow and a longhorn beetle. A willow beauty moth was one of the bigger moths and we had several micro-moths in the trap which are photographed and awaiting confirmation of id.

I recorded 23 British native plants including stinging nettle, hedge woundwort and green alkanet [a food plant for orange tip butterflies]. I didn’t include any natives that I have planted as that isn’t the point of the exercise. So Paris, Field Scabious and Bee orchid didn’t count. Neighbours just see them as weeds. But I know they are valuable for the many visitors to the garden.

We shared the role, I did plants, beetles and amphibians, whilst she did butterflies and moths, birds and mammals. The 3 hedgehogs didn’t show last night which is typical as they have been out and feeding in the garden for the last month. Whoever had the best photos of slugs, snails, spiders and woodlice uploaded them.

I wont overload you with photos but I was delighted with the longhorn beetle and the yellow cellar slug on my shed wall. I wont add the walnut orb spider as I know some of you don’t like them and this one is rather a fat lumpy ‘Shelob’. its body is about the size of a golden sultana.

Last year I sorted out what the harlequin ladybirds looked like and did destroy the pupae that I found. This year I have only found our native 7 spots.
The larva has a broken band of colour along its sides as opposed to a continuous band of colour that you find in the harlequin.

I am having a very lazy day today and will definitely be going to bed early tonight.
This is a currant clear wing moth that daughter photographed. Another first for our garden

• 21 Jun, 2020
• 15 likes

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