Biodiversity, whee!

[luzula]

It is probably obvious from recent posts that I have been indulging in biology nerdery recently! Even before I moved in, I was looking forward to making a species list for my 10 hectares. I have various biotopes on my land: garden, pastureland with oaks, open field with grass, spruce plantation, clearcut, running water and a pond, and a small patch of deciduous forest. The wild trees and bushes I have are: oak, elm, lime, ash, hazel, maple, cherry, wild apple, birch, alder, aspen, rowan, alder buckthorn, bird cherry, red and black elderberry, spruce, and one tiny pine. : D This is obviously good for biodiversity!

I could of course have gotten much further on the list if I had been more active early in the fall, but I had just moved then and was, um, quite busy. But after Christmas, when I was at about 220 species, I thought, well, I'm going to reach 250 species by New Year! Which I did quite easily by focusing on mosses, which are a specialty of mine that I hadn't looked at much here so far. And then I thought, I'm going to get 300 species before my housemate is back from England! Which I have now managed, as he comes home tomorrow. Species number 300 was a roe deer that just wandered past. : D

It became more of a challenge after it snowed, but I managed: yesterday I got seven species by a combination of searching for specific ones I knew ought to be here somewhere, and by getting creative and, for example, seeing what insects might lurk in the cellar underneath the small cabin (answer: the mosquito Culex pipiens). I love digging where I stand, because it means that I also see new species I've never seen before. I mean, otherwise I would never have bothered with that mosquito! Yesterday I also identified two wood-living fungi I'd never seen before.

Here's a breakdown of what I have so far:
vascular plants: 89 (I'm bound to get more in the spring and summer)
mosses: 75 (I wonder how many more there are? perhaps 100-120 in total?)
fungi: 45 (I've barely scratched the surface, I know...)
lichens: 31 (there are so many crust lichens I can't identify!)
invertebrates: 30 (this can grow vastly in the spring/summer, if I only have time!)
birds: 26 (I'll be relying on previously mentioned housemate here; he's a serious birdwatcher)
mammals: 4 (roe deer, fallow deer, red squirrel, and a yellow-necked mouse which we caught in a trap and gave to the cat to eat--I ought also to be able to see wild pig and European hare which are certainly around here)
reptiles and amphibians: 1 (common toad)

Of course, I can also increase biodiversity with my own efforts: I'd like to have a pile of sand for hymenoptera and other insects to make nests in, and make sure to have flowering plants to attract insects, etc.

Comments

[ysilme]

This is so awesome on so many levels! ♥♥♥ I'm totally envious in the best possible way, and so happy for you for you! ♥

[luzula]

I was inspired this evening after I ran out of local things to look at, to examine some specimens I collected this summer, which was also fun!

Also, do you keep track of what you see in your garden? I mean, one can do it in a small way, such as only looking at butterflies.

[sanguinity]

I suppose it is very much not the season for reptiles and toads! But I do very much look forward to seeing what you find when the weather warms.

And yes! Do invite hymenoptera to come to stay!


I've never tried compiling any such list for our own property, although no doubt it'd be interesting. While a small city lot, it's also heavily wooded, with a good number of native plant species, and we don't spray or clean up leaf litter. I am exceedingly proud that we have crickets in our yard come the fall. Most of the lots around us don't, but as you approach ours on a late-summer night, you can hear the crickets becoming louder, and as you walk away, the sound dying away behind you. I figure we're doing something right, if we're a refuge for crickets.

This fall Grrlpup found a wasp nest the hard way, and we debated what to do about it -- on principle we don't spray, we understand wasps are good pollinators and a vital part of the ecosystem, it was on a section of the property that could be avoided (it was after all only in October that we discovered it!). We decided to let it go dormant for the winter and then make up our minds. Well, what should happen, but...! It went dormant, and then a raccoon dug it out of the ground and ate it! (We have raccoons on our lot; there's a new litter of kits every spring.) Which was a very exciting bit of wild kingdom for us. ;-)

[luzula]

It is not the season for reptiles and amphibians, no! Not that I expect we could find very many--at the most two snake species, two lizards, and two frogs, I would expect.

Oh, good for you, leaving your lot wooded and not cleaning up! Many people think plant debris and dead wood looks untidy and ugly, but it's so important. Awww, raccoons, and with kits! That sounds very exotic to me. : )

[sanguinity]

Many people think plant debris and dead wood looks untidy and ugly, but it's so important.

It is! We're members of the Xerces Society (an international invertebrate conservation nonprofit, based locally), and they send out emails every fall exhorting people to leave the leaf litter for overwintering insects. What falls on the sidewalks and street we'll rake up and send away (because public throughways need to remain passable!), but anything that falls in the yard, stays.

Awww, raccoons, and with kits! That sounds very exotic to me. : )

Heh. Did you see this story from a couple of months ago about the woman feeding raccoons in Poulsbo (across the Sound from Seattle, just up the road from where I grew up)...? It went viral at the time, but I don't know how far the story reached. (Don't feed the wildlife. Make good habitat for them, yes, but don't FEED them.)

[luzula]

Oh, that looks like a cool non-profit! And garden debris is important for fertility, too. It's stupid to take away the debris and then add fertilizer to your garden plants.

No, I did not see that story, wow! But the link redirected me first to some general Seattle news website, and I was disappointed that the stuff about Krakens was about hockey...

[sanguinity]

Alas, yes, the Krakens are hockey! But they have also been the source of some striking monsterfucking-themed Pride art, so I forgive them. (If that had been available as a shirt, I would have bought it.)

[luzula]

That is indeed cool! Good for them.

[trobadora]

This is so awesome! :D

[luzula]

It is! I'm having a lot of fun. : )

[james]

That's very exciting! It'll be fun to see how the species visibility changes over the seasons.

[luzula]

Yes! And very cool to see how much you can see even in winter.

[james]

That was one of the fun things about moving to Tucson, Arizona when I was in my 20s. I'd grown up with the media image of the desert being just empty sand with occasional cactus and rocks. It was so awesome to go hiking in the desert and see all the wildlife that thrives there!

[luzula]

Oh, that does sound fun! I have the idea in my head of the desert blooming after rain, but not really of it being full of life in between, though of course it must be.

[oracne]

This is SO EXCITING.

[luzula]

In 2016, I did a competition with some friends, where we all tried to see as many species as we could during a year! I got 2220 species. : D So this is not a new hobby for me.

[sovay]

Species number 300 was a roe deer that just wandered past.

Mazel tov!

The mosses/lichens/fungi sound great.

[luzula]

Thank you! It's good to have such a source of joy right where I live.

[chestnut_pod]

I am green, chlorophillic green, with envy! This is so amazing, and to think it's deep winter, and presumably one of the less-active parts of the living year. Much more to come!

(Obviously no need to answer, but does your housemate keep eBird lists or does anyone do iNaturalist? I'm just so curious what it must all look like!)

[luzula]

Well, you probably also have interesting species where you live, if you go looking? : ) Dig where you stand, and all that. And yes, much more to come!

There's a wonderful Swedish site, which is government-funded and which is the one everyone uses here. (Ack, I just wondered when the right-wing government will get the idea to defund it...please, let them not do that.)

[(Anonymous)]

Oh yes, I am very lucky to have many species of interest right here!

Here's hoping that the government leaves that site well enough alone!

[chestnut_pod]

Sorry, that anonymous comment was me, as you probably surmised. Didn't realize I was logged out!

[luzula]

I did so surmise, yes! : )

[mergatrude]

♥

[luzula]

<3 <3

[regshoe]

This is amazing :D I am impressed by both the species list and your wide-ranging ID skills.

Which species of elm have you got? And I did not know there was a red-berried species of elder—hmm, looking it up it seems it's only found further east than here. We only have the black-berried one.

I like the concept of 'digging where you stand' when finding and identifying wildlife.

[luzula]

Well, I have been a biology nerd for quite some time, and have a good library, a stereo microscope, and a microscope, and also friends I can ask if I need better literature or tips. For example, I captured a black fly buzzing around the ceiling and got as far as the genus on my own (Pollenia), but then I had to ask an acquaintance for where I could find a good key to the species. And with that help I got to Pollenia griseotomentosa! Which, uh, apparently lays its eggs in earthworms and then its larvae eat the earthworms from inside until they die. *winces*

The elm is Ulmus glabra. We do have two further Swedish species, but only in specific parts of the country. And, sadly, they are all threatened by elm disease. : (

[regshoe]

Parasitic insects are so cool and horrible!

Oh yes, that's wych elm. It and U. procera are the two common elms (relatively, Dutch elm disease considering) here, and there are also various other types with rather confusing taxonomy.

What a delightful intersection

[jesse_the_k]

between your humanity and your landscape.

(It's kinda terrifying that there's a mosquito that survives in the winter, or was it hibernating?)

Re: What a delightful intersection

[luzula]

intersection between your humanity and your landscape
Well put!

They would have to survive in some form, or they would be extinct next summer. : ) But yeah, I don't know whether most of them survive in adult form, or not. This one finds caves or houses or other places where it doesn't freeze.