Bio Blitz Our Results

My Bio Blitz results are a little disappointing if I’m honest, but, after being at work all day, I didn’t get much daylight at home to check the garden and when I did get home it was pretty dull and overcast. Zoe and Bo had been out checking a few times through the day but they had pretty similar results to when I got home (apart from a Dragonfly sp seen by Bo), which was a few common birds and a lot of bees!

Bio Blitz Our Results

Like I said there were a lot of bees, the bush coming over from next door just outside my back door is full of them, it is actually quite impressive (especially as the flowers are tiny, if anyone recognises the plant from the bee photos please let me know the name). I’ll be identifying them as I can but so far I know there was Common Carder Bee, I think I have identified the others, Tree Bumblebee, Early Bumblebee and Garden Bumblebee, but if someone knows better I’d love to know (I think that was all there was, but some seemed very similar but varied in size so not really sure).

Early Bumblebee? (with mite) – Great Holm, Milton Keynes

Tree Bumblebee? – Great Holm, Milton Keynes

Garden Bumblebee? – Great Holm, Milton Keynes

Birds

Bird wise was also quite a slow evening, I didn’t notice much passing through, but we did see the following: Woodpigeon, Collard Dove, Starling, House Sparrow, Blue Tit and Blackbird, as well as a couple of late flying Common Swift (the birds not the moths) I don’t have the most bird rich garden but today was particularly slow.

Insects/beetles

The only beetle I found during daylight was a small shiny dark green one (no idea of it’s identity, see pic below). In the really small world there were some aphids and a couple of ants (black) but I would not know where to start on identifying further than that.

Unknown beetle – Great Holm, Milton Keynes

A bit of overnight trapping, with a few still to ID, we did OK, not huge numbers (although double figures of Light Brown Apple Moth), full list: Light Brown Apple Moth (13), Peppered Moth (2), Figure of Eighty (1), Large Yellow Underwing (1), Common Marble Carpet (3), Common Pug (6), Bright line Brown Eye (1), Garden Carpet (1), Marbled Minor (1), Common Swift (3), Heart & Dart (2), Clouded Silver (1), Silver Y (1), Small Square Spot (1).

Common Swift – Great Holm, Milton Keynes

Peppered Moth (1 of 2) – Great Holm, Milton Keynes

Peppered Moth (2 of 2) – Great Holm, Milton Keynes

Silver Y – Great Holm, Milton Keynes

Silver Y – Great Holm, Milton Keynes

Small Square Spot – Great Holm, Milton Keynes

as yet un-identified (no time) – Great Holm, Milton Keynes

And so ends my first Big Garden Bio Blitz, hopefully next year I won’t be working and can spend the whole day checking everything, maybe add a few mammals to the list (Squirrel and Noctule Bats are usually visible), and some butterflies would have been nice.

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