And a Swallow makes 258

A few things are beginning to appear now the sun has decided to shine occasionally. On Monday, despite the strong winds, the temperature got to 15.4C and for the very first time it felt like Spring. I thought it was never going to get here as it snowed only 7 days previous.Things have started to wake up so there has been a rush of new species in the limited time I have had in the field, not surprisingly the majority being invertebrates. The 250 mark for my 1km square was hit on Saturday with that Hoverfly and my latest additions, all from the garden were -


250. Eristalis tenax (Drone Fly)
251. Steatoda bipunctata (Common False-widow Spider)
252. Lithobius forficatus (Garden Centipede)
253. Vicia sativa (Common Vetch)
254. Bombus terrestris (Buff-tailed Bumble Bee)
255. Limax flavus (Yellow Slug)
256. Cepaea hortensis (White-lipped Snail)
257. Orthosia munda (Twin-spotted Quaker)

I am still awaiting my first butterfly anywhere and still no Clouded Drab appearing in the trap.

I put the trap out again last night but it was getting blown around too much and I abandoned it with the contents being a big fat zero. This evening my first Swallow zoomed past in a strong tailwind, number 258 and as I write this not only has the wind not died down but it's stotting down with rain too so no moth trap again.

A summary of the species I have seen within  NZ2549 (the 1km square around my house) is -

Birds	60
Vascular Plants	104
Mosses & Liverworts	38
Lichens	12
Fungi & Slime Moulds	8
Terrestrial Mammals	6
Butterflies	0
Moths	10
Dragonflies	0
Hoverflies	1
Other invertebrates	18
Amphibians & Reptiles	1
Aggregates & hybrids (not included)	9
TOTAL	258