Ladybird, Ladybird, Fly Away Home...

A stroll out to the garage revealed the sudden appearance of a few insects today; the fact that it was well into the 50s, with a warm sun and little wind, probably had something to do with that. Chief among the insects were a number of these cheery little chappies, which probably overwintered somewhere nearby. This is the Seven-spotted Ladybird, one of Britain's (and indeed Europe's) most common ladybirds. For reasons unknown, the local Norfolk name for them (well, for all ladybirds, if we're honest) is "Bishy Barnabee".

The Seven-spotted Ladybird is a generalist, able to thrive in a variety of habitats. This one was headed from the driveway into the nearby grass. Ladybirds feed on aphids. According to the National Insect Week's website, a single ladybird will eat about 5500 aphids during its life, so it's a great species to have in the garden. And yes, there's a distinct lack of originality in ladybird names!

The Lichen List Grows Further: Punctelia subrudecta

This speckly little gem is Punctelia subrudecta. In real life, it measures about an inch across, so this picture is considerably larger than life-sized. It's another new addition to the garden list, found while I was poking around the Japanese Cherry tree in the middle of the garden a few days ago. Lichens are certainly easier to find when the leaves are off the trees; these were on the top side of one of the bigger branches, where they'll be well-shaded for most of the growing season.

The rather flat, rounded lobes are finely sprinkled with tiny, crusty white spots called pseudocyphellae. This is where the little bundles of fungal and algal cells form soralia, which allow the lichen to propagate when they break off in wind and rain. And to think that all this time, this lichen was lurking in plain sight — just in plain sight some eight feet off the ground!

Another lichen: Diploicia canescens

So a bit of exploring today led me to a new lichen for the yard list — and since this is one I know well, I'm a little surprised that I haven't noticed it before. The grey-green lichen to the right of my thumbnail is Diploicia canescens. As you can tell from my nearby thumb, the few colonies I've found so far are pretty small; this is one of the larger ones, which probably means that these are relatively new colonists in our garden. Like the bright yellow-orange Xanthoria parietina colonies around it (see my earlier post about those), this species can tolerate quite high levels of nitrogen pollution, which is a good thing considering all of the surrounding farm fields!

Up close, you can see some of the key features of this lichen. Its color is a very pale grey-green. The lichen's lobes are convex (that is, they curve towards the branch below it) and get wider towards the tips. Unlike the neighboring Xanthoria parietina, it seldom has apothecia (the structures that carry spores). Instead, it clones itself, bundling up small numbers of algal and fungal cells (the building blocks of every lichen) in structures that look a bit like pale, yellowish flour sprinkled on the middle of the lichen. These structures break off in wind and rain, or when an animal walks across them. Now that I've been looking a bit harder, I also found some on the brick wall of our garage. How did I miss it for all of these months?!

The Lichen List: Xanthoria parietina

Now that the leaves are gone from the trees, the lichens that festoon trunks and branches are nicely visible, and I've been working to identify them. A few are easy. This is Xanthoria parietina, which is a very common species across the UK. Xanthoria means "golden-yellow" — certainly a good descriptor of this lichen, particularly when it's in a sunny spot like this, on a branch of our apple tree. In heavy shade, it's grey-green! One of the reasons that this species is so common is that it can tolerate high nitrogen and sulphur dioxide pollution, which is something that many lichens can't. And since our garden is surrounded by plenty of well-sprayed farm fields, our lichens are exposed to plenty of nitrogen. This is one of the first lichens I learned as a neophyte lichenologist, and I find it nearly everywhere I look. It's even widespread in towns and cities, particularly in areas where birds perch and poop.

Up close, you can see some of the key features that distinguish this lichen from some similar ones. The lobes at the edges of the lichen are generally flat (though sometimes turned up at the edges) and very wide — as much as 7mm (nearly a quarter of an inch) on the biggest lobes. That may not seem like much, but for a lichen, that's huge! The apothecia (those small, bright orange bits that look sort of like tiny, well-done pancakes) are numerous, relatively flat and unstalked, and clustered in the middle of the lichen. According to my lichen book, the centers of old specimens often die out, so I guess all of ours are relatively young colonies, as I have yet to find any with dead centers.

Let's Start From the Very Beginning...

So, what are we doing, and why? Last summer, I read one of the opening chapters in a book by our talented friend Adrian Thomas, who's a wildlife gardener with the RSPB. In it, he tells of a woman in Leicester who, some 30 years ago, began documenting all the species that lived in or visited her small suburban garden. Over three decades, she has logged more than 2670 species — including several species of wasps new to science! That has inspired us to a new challenge. We already wanted to expand and improve the "wildlife friendliness" of the property. Now we also hope to document every species that lives in or visits our garden as well.

The bare bones of a great space is already here. We have (as you might have guessed from the blog title) a half-acre to work with. There are a number of well-established trees and hedges. We made a start last year on creating some flower beds, with a view to attracting pollinators. Now we need to start recording. On this blog, we'll post details about some of our finds and create pages listing each of the species we record. Pictures will most definitely be included!

No, it doesn't look like this right now — but it will in a few months!