...mostly spending a long time identifying things

Last weekend's star bird was this Cormorant which went fishing on The Shunan, I can't recall seeing one on there before, the few records for the patch each year are flyovers.

Cormorant

Lat weekend I tidied the greenhouse and extracted some litter.

Tidy greenhouse.

Of course beasts were found in the greenhouse, like this huge Lumbricus terrestris.

Also in there Pterostichus melanarius and the centipede Lithobius melanops.

 Can't do these with certainty without killing them unfortunately.

But I could let the Pterostichus go.

From litter Tachinus rufipes I think, common here, but I should really key it out to be 100%

More litter extraction this weekend and I only managed to ID two of the things I caught. This rather nice but tiny Staphylinidae is Tachyporus chrysomelinus dispar (following discussion elsewhere) which was a complete sod to ID and involved mapping the elytral setae which with my cheap optical microscope was a challenge. (Tachyporus dispar has four apical setae, like this animal, chrysomelinus has three.)

However, the ID was confirmed so job done!

This centipede was a bit challenging and I've not really attempted the Geophilomorpha before. Fortunately it came out as a common one. 

Geophilus insculptus, now confirmed.

G. insculptus is a common centipede across the UK but not many miles to the north of here, on Unst, Shetland, the single UK record of G. proximus was found, so it is maybe important to be thorough and cautious with identifications. Splitting the two species is subtle, but my middle photo here shows a single isolated pore on the coxa, and this is immediately the most straightforward character for eliminating proximus (there are two other less easy characters).

Photo is rubbish (so not posted) but second moth species of the year, White-shouldered House Moth, captured by younger daughter in her bedroom.

Another day, another visit to the Ring, another photo...

Sea

Sea today

 Dawn Monday

Stuff from last weekend and the first few days of the year.

A tiny Yellow Brain on Gorse.

Coriolus versicolor on Sycamore

 Calathus melanocephalus

 Nebria brevicollis

 Pterostichus niger

 Pterostichus nigrita/rheaticus - can't always split these with gen det so didn't bother, it's probably nigrita though.

Pterostichus strenuus

 Ulota phyllantha

Lechenora carpinea

Another day, another storm - back a couple of weeks.

New Year

Winter Moth

Twenty minutes after midnight the moth was on an eggbox around the outside of the trap. And a delve around in the veggie patch produced four species of slug, but I can (at the moment) only identify two.

 Arion distinctus

Netted Field Slug - Derocerus reticulatum

We went to the Ring of Brodgar.

 

Year end

Christmas Eve was brightened up by a new bird for the patch, Snow Goose. It hung around for part of Christmas Day too before heading off up Durkadale and then to Shapinsay apparently.

Also on Christmas Eve the final moth of the year, Depressaria radiella on Louise's jumper in the house, it could have come in on the bought flowers.

I haven't worked out the final tally of things for the pan-listing 1km sq but I've certainly enjoyed it and learned a lot. Nowhere near 1,000 species for the year, I might guess at 350 maybe. This total included at least two species new for the county and several that have only occasionally been recorded in the past. I've learned that adult caddis can be identified and with online help I've started to make progress identifying them. The new FBA guide that I got for Christmas will help me take these further.

Agrypnia varia 

I've rekindled my interest in beetles, found a good number of nice new species for me and again obtained some excellent support from the main online forum the FB UK Beetles group. I've discovered that the Staphylinidae are possible and now I have the keys I hope to take these further (I might need a better microscope). I've had a go at a few more Diptera, tricky beasts but some very helpful support both locally and online.

Ctenicera cuprea

New birds for the old Shunan patch, Gannet - a sadly injured bird on the North Biggin Rd that had likely flown into a fence; Jack Snipe - long overdue and found elsewhere on the Patchwork area; White-tailed Eagle - again overdue but this one almost got on the "in the garden" list as it flew low across the fields, nabbed just as I sat down outside on my return from work late one afternoon; Long-tailed Duck - one on The Shunan for a couple of days; Snow Goose - see above.

One new mammal as I recorded Common Pipestrelle this October. Missing was Otter which despite Louise seeing just outside the recording area and my seeing water tracks of a presumed female with kits on the track I failed to see. All other mammals present and correct although Brown Rat and Pygmy Shrew were only recorded as corpses.

An amphibian, Common Frog recorded three times, on the second occasion one crawled up my trouser leg as I lay in the grass looking for water beetles. In ten years not recorded here previously.

Several new moths for the patch this year including Dun-bar and Catoptria falsella which was new for the county.

Catoptria falsella

Targets for 2020 are - to do better with plants, and keep up-to-date with my notes and photos a bit better. Happy New Year.

Christmas shopping

First day of the holiday and an early start as our migrant from Cornwall needed to catch the plane out to Papay. On the way in to Kirkwall good views of a drake Surf Scoter were obtained. And Louise found a heating engineer who solved the oil flow problem with the Aga, so we will now, hopefully, have an oven for the cooking business in two days time.

A few photos from the last few days including a non-rocking Arion from Yesnaby, so theiretically not A. ater.

 Arion sp Yesnaby

Loch of Harray this morning.

Stromness at night

Rookery.

Dusk from home or thereabouts.