• ABOUT
  • BIRDING 2018
  • Birding 2019
  • BLOG POSTS
  • Butterflies 2018
  • Resources

earthstar

~ a celebration of nature

earthstar

Tag Archives: square-bashing

Square-bashing: SS9073

02 Sunday Jul 2017

Posted by sconzani in fungi, insects, molluscs, nature, walks

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

biodiversity, biodiversity in Wales, biological diversity, biological recording, biological records, square-bashing

170702 Square-bashing SS9073 (1)

A few days ago I posted about my square-bashing adventure near Llanbeder, in Gwent. Hilary and I have now also square-bashed another under-biodiversity-recorded 1-km square, this time near St Brides Major in Glamorgan.

170702 Square-bashing SS9073 (2)

As the seagull flies we were within a kilometre of the sea and the geological substrate was very different, so the habitats we surveyed were more diverse. One public path led us down a heavily wooded driveway to an old house, another ran between the edge of that same woodland and fields sown with cereal crops (and there the hogweed was flowering which greatly improved my insect tally), and the third took us over paddocks of rough unimproved grassland, with patches of low rushes, all bordered by a wild old hedgerow.

170702 Square-bashing SS9073 (3)

Interestingly, this time Hilary’s plant list was about 20% lower than that from our previous square (though she still had around 80 species), whereas my list of everything else was about the same percentage higher (at around 100 species of insects, fungi and lichens, molluscs, etc).

170702 Banded burdock fly
170702 Bombus vestalis
170702 Cheilosia illustrata
170702 Chlorociboria sp Green elfcup
170702 Common marble moth
170702 Dark bush-cricket
170702 Fly
170702 fungi on cow dung Cheilymenia sp
170702 Horsefly
170702 Leptopterna dolabrata
170702 Small whites
170702 Snails and woodlice

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Square-bashing: ST3990

28 Wednesday Jun 2017

Posted by sconzani in fungi, insects, nature, walks

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

bioblitz, biodiversity, biodiversity in Wales, biological recording, biological records, SEWBReC, square-bashing

I spent last Friday square-bashing with my friend Hilary, and what a brilliant day we had.

170628 ST3990 square-bashing (1)

For the uninitiated, square-bashing consists of taking a square kilometre that has very few existing biological records and walking the roads, tracks and paths through that square to see what you can find. Each month, my local biodiversity records centre SEWBReC publishes the details of just such a square in the counties they cover, Glamorgan and Gwent, in the hope that keen folks like Hilary and I will rectify the lack of records.

170628 ST3990 square-bashing (2)

Although the term square-bashing is not meant to be taken literally, we did have to bash our way through one field in our square kilometre, where the public footpath was completely overgrown (spot Hilary in the photo below), but on the whole the countryside was beautiful, with rolling farmed fields, old narrow lanes and, the best part, an ancient holloway (more on that in a future post).

170628 ST3990 square-bashing (3)

Hilary’s something of a whizz when it comes to plants so she recorded those and I did everything else – insects, fungi, birds, you name it! As I’m not a whizz at anything, I mostly take lots of photos and then have to work out the IDs when I get home, which takes time but helps me learn. I have just a couple of outstanding queries but reckon my total will come to around 80 and Hilary has about 90 plants on her list, so it was a very good result indeed. Here are some of my finds – can you identify them?

170628 Beechmast candlesnuff Xylaria carpophila
170628 Common marble Celypha lacunana
170628 Cranefly Ptychoptera sp
170628 Eriophyes similis Gall mite
170628 Harlequin ladybird larva Harmonia axyridis
170628 Hawthorn shieldbug Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale
170628 Knot grass larva Acronicta rumicis
170628 Lagria hirta
170628 Meadow brown Maniola jurtina
170628 Pollen beetles Meligethes sp
170628 Snipe fly Rhagio tringarius
170628 Yellow dung fly Scathophaga stercoraria

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

About me

sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

View Full Profile →

Follow earthstar on WordPress.com

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Recent blog posts

  • Holly flowers January 24, 2021
  • Bullfinch and Bramble January 23, 2021
  • Hairy curtain crust January 22, 2021
  • Pussy willow January 21, 2021
  • Wild word: pupa January 20, 2021

From the archives

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

COPYRIGHT

Unless otherwise acknowledged, the text and photographs on this blog are my own and are subject to international copyright. Nothing may be downloaded or copied without my permission.

Click on the category

'Dedicated Naturalist' Project 365DaysWildin2019 amphibian animals autumn birds coastal fauna flowers fungi geology insects ladybird leaves lichen mammal molluscs nature nature photography parks plants reptiles seaside seasons spiders spring trees walks weather wildflowers winter

Fellow Earth Stars!

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel
%d bloggers like this: