I don't like crickets...

...I love them, when they're Long-winged Coneheads! This was a long-expected new Orthopera species for the Nunnery Lakes as it's been spreading through East Anglia for a while now. Still need to sort out Short-winged Conehead this year though, which we've certainly had before now.

Quite a lot of work recently looking at plants, hoverflies, etc etc. We passed the 1,500 mark today, courtesy of an interesting non-native, the Narrow-leaved Ragwort Senecio inaequidens that was located growing on the wall of the ancient Nunnery itself. This also seems to be spreading rapidly - my 1997 edition of Stace says it is "now natd on sandy beach in East Kent, perhaps soon to spread as in N France". Quite prophetic, when you look at the distribution map produced by the BSBI.

Other recent additions have included Lighthouse Gall, Thorn-apple, Acleris emargana, Twin-lobed Deerfly and Apple Mint.

Second for Norfolk

After turning up the first Box Bug for Norfolk on 28th April, it was a surprise to find apparently the second for Norfolk yesterday! On an alder leaf, not a box in sight.

Other additions from yesterday so far include the Sulphur Beetle Cteniopus sulphureus and the hoverfly Helophilus pendulus.

Twitching with a ladder

No, not another White-throated Robin, but Chris Gregory kindly showed us one of the Nunnery's rarest and most specialised species - Wall Bedstraw Galium parisiense. OK, possibly not the most stunning addition to the list, but they all count and this is presumably (?) one that doesn't occur at the Lodge anyway. Not easy to see here either!

Other additions today were Richard's Hummingbird Hawk and Dawn's Agriphila straminella , whilst I could only chip in with yet another leaf-miner, Parornix anglicella.

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...

Gringo and tiger!

Gringo is an Irish friend's name for Greenshank... and Paul Stancliffe has just had one flying over The Nunnery calling repeatedly (as they do), 127! Can't quite believe we now have 3 waders that are not on The Lodgers' list... for how long though, I wonder?

Missed the opportunity to photograph a pristine Cream-spot Tiger this morning as it was far more awake than I realised when I took it out for a photo-shoot. Still, a nice one to find in the moth trap last night.

Director leads by example

After keeping his powder dry in terms of BirdTrack Challenge additions (or being 2 days behind everyone else, depending which way you look at it), BTO Director Andy Clements chipped in with the vital contribution of a Spotted Flycatcher this lunchtime. 126 OTL, the lead retaken and a potentially very tricky grip-back secured.

The Ears have it

With all but a couple of the expected birds now mopped up, Richard "The Ears" Thewlis came up trumps with a Tree Pipit (which despite being widepsread in nearby Thetford Forest are rare round here) flying over the Nunnery this afternoon. 119.

Quality and quantity

Well, the BTO boys and girls are certainly getting some quality birds. There must be a scarce bird superhighway running above the Brecks. In fact, I'm starting to get a little concerned. These are the species on the Nunnery list and not on The Lodge list:

1. Bewick's Swan
2. Egyptian Goose
3. Mandarin
4. Pintail
5. Goosander
6. Grey Partridge
7. Bittern 
8. Marsh Harrier
9. Goshawk
10. Water Rail
11.Stone-curlew
12.Yellow-legged Gull
13. Barn Owl
14. Long-eared Owl
15. Stonechat
16. Marsh Tit
17. Hawfinch

Of these, we should quite easily grip-back Grey Partridge and Yellow-legged Gull. I would consider our chances 'fair' for Marsh Harrier, Barn Owl and Stonechat and the outlook is rather poor (at best!) for the rest.

Birds on The Lodge list, but not The Nunnery list are not quite as impressive. I wonder how Nick considers the White Nuns' chances with these?

1. Barnacle Goose
2. Osprey
3. Merlin
4. Oystercatcher
5. Ringed Plover
6. Golden Plover
7. Dunlin
8. Green Sandpiper
9. Woodlark (STA)
10. Waxwing
11. Wheatear
12. [Coué's] Arctic Redpoll

Batman Begins

BTO batman Stuart Newson called the White Nuns into action yesterday evening for something of which the England cricket team are currently incapable, a brilliant few hours of batting. Fascinating stuff it was too, with Stuart ably leading the troops round the Nunnery grounds and down onto the Nunnery Lakes reserve, before we convened in my front room to analyse the results. Five species were recorded to a reasonable level of confidence: Common Pipistrelle, Soprano Pipistrelle, Brown Long-eared, Daubenton's and the real jewel in the crown, Barbastelle (which had Dave Leech dancing with joy - a sight worth staying up for in itself!):

Stuart has gone beyond the call of duty by not only galvanising us into action and organising the session, but by already producing a preliminary report on what we found!

Whilst all that was going on, late-working Kate Risely had the presence of mind to grab the moth she saw on exiting the building, which turned out to be a very early Garden Carpet.

Raptor rapture

Earlier today I received an email from Darren drawing my attention to the recent gap-narrowing achieved by The Lodgers, who (thought they had) closed the gap to 93 - 91.

Not so fast Darren! Dorian Moss and Neil Calbrade scored a double whammy today; Dorian saw a Peregrine over the Nunnery at lunchtime, with Neil adding a Red Kite a bit later on. Nice to see that days that look like they ought to be good for raptors can actually deliver the goods!

The kite was spotted over the Nunnery Lakes but Neil's quick call back to base had several of us rushing out into the Nunnery car park, from where we were able to 'scope the bird as it drifted high to the west (back to the Lodge?!).

Sunshine....

....but no butterflies during 10 mins lunchbreak in the Nunnery grounds. However, five inverts to get me going: Seven-spot Ladybird, Honey Bee, Drone-fly (Eristalis tenax, check those legs!), Great Pond Snail and Great Ramshorn Snail.