After a week of number-crunching and data inputting, the provisional results of Minsmere's first Bioblitz are finally in. I say provisional because there may be a few records that the relevant county recorders decline to accept due to the difficulty in identifying them, while there may be others to add once some of our experts recorders have undertaken microscopic analysis.
So, how many of our 5700+ species did we manage to identify during the nine day count (from 27 May to 4 June)? A pretty impressive total of 926 species, or about 16% of the reserve total species count. This may not sound a lot, but remember that many species are present only at certain seasons, others are rare and only occasional visitors, and many others require expert study (often using microscopes) to confirm identification to species level.
By the far the most widely recorded group were flowering plants, which accounted for 311 species, or about 33.6% of the weekly total. This is particularly notable as many of these were identified from their leaves or seeds by our expert volunteers, even though they are not necessarily flowering at present.
Moths were the next most numerous group, with 181 species (19.5% of the total), thanks to the efforts of our volunteers who ran a moth trap on several evenings. A few day-flying moths were also seen by visitors, including the beautiful broad-bordered bee-hawkmoth that one family found near the visitor centre.
A broad-bordered bee-hawkmoth on Spanish bluebell - two of the species seen during the bioblitz
Many visitors think of Minsmere as a bird reserve, but birds were only the third most widely reported group, with 130 species accounting for 14.0% of the total. This did, however, include some top quality rarities during the week: red-footed falcon, purple heron, glossy ibis, great white egret and Savi's warbler. Of course, it also included most of our regularly seen or heard breeding species, though there were some notable omissions from the list. No-one, for example, saw a barn owl, wigeon or house martin at Minsmere during the bioblitz, though the first two of these have both been seen today.
Purple heron by John Gilbody - one of the unexpected species seen during the week
Thanks to the expert knowledge of some of the local recorders, the list also includes 60 species of Diptera (or true fly), 30 Hymenoptera (bees, wasps and ants) and 16 Molluscs (slugs and snails), as well as 19 butterflies, 18 dragonflies and damselflies and 20 mammals. The latter list could have been even better, too, since no bats were reported during the week, and nor were some of the small mammals such as common and pygmy shrew. However, the water voles and water shrews proved very popular at the pond, and there were several sightings of otters and badgers. The undoubted highlight of the dragonfly list was red-veined darter, though the Norfolk hawkers proved more popular with most visitors as they were much easier to see. The first silver-studded blue butterflies were also seen on the heath during the week.
Looking at the numbers in a different way helps to give an even better perspective of how successful the bioblitz was for recording some of Minsmere's wildlife, though less so for other groups. Every species of reptile and amphibian on the reserve list was seen during the week (though this equates to just eight species: adder, grass snake, common lizard, slow worm, common and natterjack toads, common frog and smooth newt).
Grass snake by Alec Cuthbertson
The 18 species of dragonflies represented 72% of the 25 species seen on the reserve. With both butterflies and terrestrial mammals the total was 51.4%, while the 311 flowering plants was almost half of the species recorded here. (It's worth noting that as coypu and red squirrel are long since extinct at Minsmere, the actual percentage of mammals seen is even higher.)
Birds were well represented during the week, with 36% of those on the reserve list seen during the week. Given that many species are rare visitors, and others only visit in winter, this is a pretty good total.
Perhaps equally impressive was the moth total, which at about 16% of the 1100+ species seen at Minsmere is a similar percentage to that for the overall totals. This included a new species for the reserve too. Another new species was added to the list of bees, wasps and ants too, and there may be more to add when the final figures are tallied.
In contract, no-one managed to positively identify any species of lichen, moss or liverwort during the week. These taxa tend to be poorly recorded and are often very difficult to identify to species level without a microscope, but were probably largely overlooked by most visitors. Equally disappointing was the total of just species of fungi during the week. With more than 1400 species on the reserve list, this is a very poor representation, although admitted most fungi are best seen in the cooler, wetter months of autumn and winter.
If you would like to see the full list of species recorded during the week, or even add some sightings of your own, please log in to I-Record and search for the Minsmere Bioblitz 2017 - see https://www.brc.ac.uk/irecord/
Don't forget, too, that doing a bioblitz is one of the activities in the exciting new Wild Challenge - see https://ww2.rspb.org.uk/kids-and-schools/kids-and-families/wild-challenge/ for more information on how to get involved.