Resolutions

As it's the New Year it only seems right to set some wildlife related resolutions. Having a new little person in my life is going to restrict the time available to me, but the wonderful thing about nature is you never have to go very far to find some. I'll definitely keep running the garden moth trap, and hopefully surpass this year's total of 252 species.

Sticking with moths, I really must make more of an effort this year to try and find a Hornet Clearwing. I live next to a Poplar plantation where they're known to occur, so no excuse not to spend a few mornings in June and July having a search for freshly emerged adults.

Having finally managed to go and see Adonis' Blue this year (and what a fantastic butterfly it is, gratuitous photo below!) the next butterfly on my must-see list is Purple Emperor, a spectacular woodland inhabitant that I've had a few failed attempts to see.

Gratuitous Adonis Blue - the bluest thing ever!

I'm still keeping track of my pan-species list, which currently stands at 1838 species, so 2000 species by the end of the year seems like a sensible number to aim for. One thing that would really help is spending a bit more time looking a plants - I did manage to more than double my list last year, but it still only stands at a mediocre 266 species, so plenty of room for improvement.

I'll also try and continue to develop my knowledge of hoverflies, and achieve the targets I've already set in my 2015 review post.

Possibly most challenging of all, I'll try and keep up this blog, and not do my usual trick of running out of steam half way through the year! Happy 2016 everyone, may it be full of sunshine and wildlife!