It was quite a cloudy day to start and so I did a lot of hunting under tubs and pots. The first things I saw were several generations of pill woodlice under a paint pot, being stored outside. This isn't a good picture, as they were moving very fast, but there were all sizes and ages. This is the
Pill Woodlice |
My knowledge of woodlice was therefore increased 100% when I found what I learned to be a common shiny woodlouse. The latin name is Oniscus Asellus. The link here shows pictures taken by a much better photographer than me! These are larger than the Pill Woodlice shown here and move much more slowly. But still too fast for a decent photo!
Having searched fairly unsuccesfully for wildlife I was even quite pleased to find these snails on my Sea Holly Plant. I wouldn't normally be happy about them being there at all, but at least they showed that something was living in my garden.
Egg of Common Gull |
A bit more searching and a little bit of gentle digging produced some
Garden Centipede |
The next day I had another search as the sun was shining a bit more and it looked generally a bit more promising. Well, luck prevailed and I actually saw my first few ladybirds of 2013. Last year there were loads of them around but they have been extremely elusive so far.
With a final bit of prodding in a wall I found this house spider. It appeared out of a crack in the wall but disappeared into another one just as quickly.
The only flying insect I saw was a hoverfly and there was no way I could get a picture of this.
Ribwort Plantain |
Plant life wise, the things that are going strong but that have found their way accidentally into our garden are clover, and Ribwort Plantain, which shows up on the car park lawn regularly.
Since the Bioblitz things have started flowering in my wildlife planting area and I have also started to see the occasional cabbage white butterfly around, but nothing made a show last weekend.
All in all, the Garden Bioblitz is great fun. It's good to go searching round your garden to see what is living there - however small and insignificant or grand and wonderful this might be. The help provided via twitter in identifying bugs and plants was great.
So why not keep your eyes open and have a go next year if you didn't get involved in 2013.
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