Despite the wet and somewhat breezy conditions to start the day off, the weather improved as the day progressed, and it turned out to be an immensely enjoyable, if a little exhausting, event! We recorded in excess of 250 species, although we are still working on the final tally. All species seen and identified were entered into the 'ERCCIS' database - that is, the Environmental Records Centre for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
Our various activities during the day yielded some smart species, and it was great to get a good crowd of public visitors joining in with the surveys and learning about the importance of the natural world and recording everything you see! I have tried to include some of the highlights below, although they predominantly take the form of insects, as photographing birds was a little tricky in the wet weather. Please keep an eye on the Bioblitz page for more updates and hopefully a video overviewing the day's events...
The Bioblitz here on Tremough campus has been running for three years now, and is a great opportunity to discover the wealth of fauna and flora inhabiting our university grounds.
A selection of images from the day:
Cardinal Beetle! (and #Bioblitz promo!)
A new one for me, and arguably the highlight of the insect side of things: Cardinal Beetle (Pyrochroa serraticornis)
Sweep netting for insects in the upper fields of campus
Will getting a closer look at an Andrena mining bee for a positive ID
There was a good turn out of people and students for some of the events. The bird ringing was, predictably, one of the most popular, and it was therefore a relief that the weather played ball in the end. We managed to catch 12 birds in total, including a Greenfinch and a Coal Tit
Aedeagus is the word...a tricky Wolf Spider proving hard to identify
Hair Shieldbug (Dolycoris baccarum)
White-lipped Snail (Cepaea hortensis)
Muslin Moth - amongst a handful of lepidoptera species recorded from the traps
A smart Red Weevil (Apion frumentarium)
An Owl Midge of some description (Psychodidae sp.)
Rhingia campestris fly
Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)
Yellow Dung Fly (Scathophagus stercorarius)
Green Dock Beetles (Gastrophysa viridula) - the lower individual is a female bursting with eggs!
One that has evaded identification so far...any help appreciated
An assasin-like Bug, possibly Stenodema calcarata
Horsehair Worm - a bizarre worm whose larvae parasitise arthropods like Beetles, Crustaceans and Orthopterans (Grasshoppers)
A very smart Harvestman which I have never before seen: Nemastoma bimaculatum
In the evening we headed down to the nearby reservoirs, where we used bat detectors to reveal the presence of both Common and Soprano Pipistrelles, whilst the high-flying Noctules produced their audible echolocation calls overhead
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