New Species - Capillary Thread Moss

I just doubled my new Bryophyte species list as I have started looking at the mosses all around. This is another common one, Capillary Thread Moss (Bryum capillare) and is growing nicely on a stone destined for the restored dry stone wall.

Frogspawn!

The pond was put in nearly seven years ago but has only once before now had any frogspawn. That was in 2018 and there wasn't much and it all disappeared pretty quickly. Now we have some serious spawn but I'm going to have to make sure it doesn't dry out and hopefully we can have some tadpoles, most of which will presumably become lunch for the odonata larvae.

'New' Species - Springy Turf-moss - Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus

Not really new at all - in fact there's stacks of this moss around - but as this is the first time I've positively looked at, identified and separated this bryophyte from all the others, I'm counting it as a new species for the all-new Bryophyte list. Known for its association with Waxcaps.

Not fully wild but perhaps could count as a new species?

It was reported there was a Wild Boar and offspring in the village and eventually they turned up at my place. It transpired that they weren't fully Wild Boar - the mother was partly and the offspring had been sired by a Wild Boar so was more so, but they were distinctly tame. They had escaped from their pen two or three miles away and eventually they were caught and taken back to their owner. Here they are when at one point they were in a neighbouring field.

Year of the Pinkgill

It's been a reasonable year for fungi in general but a spectacular one for Pinkgills. Part of it may be that I have been locked down here looking every day and part of it down to slowly increasing knowledge and better id books but even so the list of Pinkgills has grown significantly and that just shows it was a very good year for them. This year I have recorded as new for the site the following Pinkgills: Cream Pinkgill (Entoloma sericellum) Big Blue Pinkgill (Entoloma bloxamii) Enoloma juncinum Entoloma exile Recorded before but also seen this year: Lilac Pinkgill (Entoloma porphyrophaeum) Felted Pinkgill (Entoloma griseocyaneum) Indigo Pinkgill (Entoloma chalybeum) Star Pinkgill (Entoloma conferendum) Mealy Pinkgill (Entoloma prunuloides) Still sorting out: Entoloma infula Papillate Pinkgill (Entoloma papillatum) Pimple Pinkgill (Enoloma hebes) In addition there were two or three species that I thought were new but which I couldn't get an ID on. I'll have to up my skills by next year! The photo is one I didn't id - looks like a darker E prunuloides, maybe a variety of or a related species.

New Species - Micropterix calthella

Like a researcher discovering something in the museum archives I have identified a micromoth from a four year old photograph. I was looking at some photos I had taken of Spring Sedge in May 2016 and I spotted a couple of micromoths which I was able to identify as Micropterix calthella (no English name) using my two field guides. The Micropterididae are the only moths with chewing mouthparts and have been around for 100 million years as they evolved in tandem with flowering plants.

New Trail Camera - Badger photographed

The old trail camera should been replaced months ago and the new one is delivering already. A Fallow Stag on night one and a Badger on night 2.