BTO: scores on the doors

OK, I'm feeling guilty for not contributing much since returning from my hols. Have now had a look through the list we've compiled and although there's a little tidying still to do, best estimate is that BTO are on at least 987 taxa for the year so far. I suspect we're really over 1,000 now, as there are still a load of unidentifieds still residing in pots or on cameras, but that's the score for now. Just to clarify, by "taxa", this means organisms mostly identified to species, but where we don't feel confident in our ability to do so, we're including aggregates at higher taxonomic levels (e.g. Dark or Grey Dagger; Unidentified Stonefly; etc).

A breakdown of the list then so far, which is quite revealing in the groups we really ought to try a bit harder with:

Vertebrates

Fish - 14

Amphibians - 2

Birds - 130

Mammals - 25

Reptiles - 3

Insects

Springtails - 1

Mayflies - 3

Thrips - 1

Dragonflies - 10

Stoneflies - 1

Grasshoppers - 9

Earwigs - 1

True bugs - 23

Lacewings - 4

Scorpionflies - 1

Moths & butterflies - 208

Caddisflies - 4

True flies - 45

Bees, wasps, ants - 40

Beetles - 46

Other invertebrates

Worms - 2

Arachnids - 78

Centipedes - 2

Milipedes - 2

Crustaceans - 8

Molluscs - 11

Horse Hairworms - 1

Sponges - 1

Fungi - 10

Plants

Algae - 1

Bryophytes - 17

Horsetails - 3

Ferns - 4

Conifers - 4

Dicotyledons - 231

Monocotyledons - 41

One of the interesting things is to look at the daft things we're still missing. Frog leaps out at me (sorry) as a particular gap, but Bank Vole and Wood Mouse are also somewhat embarrassing. There are also some very obvious plants we just need to remember to look for, such as Smooth and Prickly Sow-thistles.

Better get back to work then. I could do with a few months' sabbatical to do this properly though...