Counting Species Again

[drplokta]

So, back in 2007 I spent the year seeing how many different species of vertebrate (excluding fish) and butterfly I could spot around Rotherhithe, in inner London. And I scored 71.

Since I now live somewhere completely different, I'll try the same again for 2014 and see how I get on. The ground rules (lightly edited from last time) are:

1. The area is everything in walking distance of home.
   
2. Air-breathing vertebrates and butterflies only. Fish are too dull and hard to see, and invertebrates are too numerous and hard to identify. Amphibians at a non-air-breathing stage count, but will probably also be hard to identify.
   
3. Domesticated animals, including homo sapiens, don't count, but escaped or released animals do (e.g. pheasants).
   
4. Dead animals don't count, even though that's the only way I'm likely to find a hedgehog.
   
5. Photos to be provided where possible, but it still counts if I can't get a photo.
   
6. Hearing but not seeing does not count. (So much for scoring any owls.)
   
7. Updates to be posted behind a cut tag for the benefit of those people who don't want to download large numbers of blurry thumbnails.
   
8. Herring gulls, lesser black-backed gulls, yellow-legged gulls and Caspian gulls are different species. Whether or not I can tell the difference is another matter.
   

As before, here's a poll for you to guess how many I'll see. A few points to bear in mind:

• I'm now in the middle of the Kent countryside
  
• But farmland is actually not very biodiverse, less so than suburbia
  
• But there's plenty of woodland nearby as well, and we have a big garden now
  
• But there's no open water, so a lot less waterfowl and seagulls than last time
  
• And I'll mostly be accompanied by a large and boisterous carnivore who will scare off some of the wildlife
  

[Poll #1951386]

Comments

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

I'm being optimistic. But there are certainly more mammals for you to find, and probably more butterflies; I think you will see quite a lot of occasional visitors in the birds, and you'll be walking more.

Do you have to be walking? Because the best way to spot your local large mammal appears to be driving up and down your road late at night. And why won't you see hedgehogs otherwise? They're often just wandering around.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Yes, we get hedgehogs in the garden sometimes, and we're only a few hundred metres from the centre of our town. The secret is that they are really very noisy (hence the whole hedge pig moniker - they really do sound like pigs in the hedge), so keep your ears open and then follow the noise.

Putting out saucers of mealworms to attract them might be considered cheating, but the rules don't say no.

Do you have to be walking?

Well, I'm sure he could be sitting with his feet up in the lounge looking out of the window. But the walking distance is a constraint that stops him bagging stuff not in the vicinity.

I'm amused at the option for no sightings during the year though. I'm also amused by the herring gull sub-species/species proviso, though it's a fair enough rule for collecting purposes.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

The only time I've ever seen a non-captive owl I was in the passenger seat of someone's car - it flew across the road and was illuminated perfectly by the headlights. No camera or time for a photo, of course.

edited for stupid spelling mistake

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

I *hit* a (non-captive) owl once. Most unfortunate, it popped out of a hedge as I rode past and we collided as a result.

I've had a tame one land on my head. Stupid creature. Adorably cute, but utterly stupid - owls have very small brains under all those feathers. Anyway, this one was supposed to be flying to my wrist, but decided a black leather hat was a suitable alternative.

[frostfox.livejournal.com]

I nearly hit one, carrying a huge rat, near Knutsford and I was a passenger in a car which nearly hit one carrying a rabbit near Machynlleth. The rabbit ended up under our wheels. Both times the owls were flying very low due to their heavy load.
Hear them all the time in the woods at the end of our road.

FF

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Your list of poll answers is heavily weighted towards low numbers, and it seems you expect fewer species in Kent than you did in London. Why is that?

K. [picked the largest available number]