Foxglove 25 - Species Audit

During our 25th year we are doing an audit of the flora and fauna found at Foxglove.  It is highly unlikely that we will record all 2602 species, but we will do our best. 

The monthly flower walk recorded 18 flowers that fulfilled the criteria of being 'open', including Hairy Bittercress.  This did need to be checked.

Although looking for flowers our attention was drawn to some tiny things!  Initially we thought they were spiderlings as there were so many of them walking about on the hand rail of the bridge.  When home and photos downloaded only six legs could be accounted for, and they had a hairy bottom!  With help from a friend of Foxglove they were identified as Globular Springtails.  Photographing these tiny insects was not easy and when the photos were cropped and enlarged to show detail, they have become slightly pixilated.

We are still working on a species ID but think these could be Allacma fusca and if so it is the third new species for the reserve this year.

Back to the flowers, we were rather surprised that the female Hazel flower was still to be seen.  

Some species we rarely see, some like the Grey Squirrel are an all too frequent visitor to the seed feeders.  We can also see where they have been,  This neat line of empty Hazel Nut shells look rather fresh, so I am presuming they have been retrieved from some that were stored in the autumn.

Back at the Field Centre, we were easily distracted from the washing up by two Long-tailed Tits feeding from the peanuts.

As spring continues the number of species, particularly the invertebrates, will increase so adding to our list, which already stands at over 100.