CNC- 17 new species added to the Life List -Rod Lowther
Unfortunately, I was not feeling well in the week prior to the CNC. Could have been a reaction to the Covid injection or a cold caught from the grandchildren who visited the weekend before. Either way, my energy level was down at the start of the event.
On the Friday, I remained local with two short trips - one to the Seaview Reserve grassland behind my house and in the afternoon a visit to Jerringot Wetlands. This is my traditional first start to a bioblitz as each location has a project in iNaturalist (see links below) with associated species list. So, I know what I am looking for, gets me off to a good start day list (81 observations) plus always provides a few surprises. Highlights for day 1 were finding 6 grasshopper species plus my first even sighting of a Purple -winged Mantis.
https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/projects/gfnc-seaview-park-collection
https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/projects/gfnc-jerringot-wetland-collection
On the Saturday, I decide to take my two grandchildren (12 and 9 years) along to a few places on the Bellarine. I supplied each with a camera, suffice to say after 10 minutes I realised that my normal pace of doing the bioblitz was not going to work. So, decide to concentrate on teaching them on how to take photos and be instructive on what we were seeing. Didn’t get as many observations in the half day as planned but a nice time was had in fostering their appreciation of nature and just walking about the Drysdale reserves.
After dropping them off for lunch and following a brief rest, I headed off alone to the Dog Rocks at Batesford and found a few damselflies at the pond and then wondered if there would be still dragonflies / damselflies at the Barwon Water Reserve in Brisbane Ranges. John Newman and I had previously found quite a few species there a month earlier. Alas, nothing was found there but at least I proved that the season for these creatures is now come to an end. A few isolated observations on the way back home – after uploading to iNaturalist I was surprised to see I had accumulated 62 Observations on Day 2.
Sunday was a brief walk around the Geelong Botanic Gardens providing a few highlights. Met Kelly Clitheroe there who pointed out a small red Katydid- the nymph of the Common Garden Katydid. Later, I photographed a new species for me an interesting Hoverfly that had only one other record in iNaturalist for Victoria.
On Monday ventured down the coast for some beachcombing and finding seashells. Low tide was at 9.30 am so arrived in Lorne about 8.30 am and after a couple of long walks finished up around midday. Searching for molluscs is a good way to increase the observation and species count and I ended the CNC with 96 observations and 51 species identified including 5 new species for my life list.
On reflection, I must admit I did enjoy the excitement of the weekend BioBlitz and am so glad that I pushed myself early. By the end I had forgotten about being crook. I was pleased to end up with 149 total species including 17 new species for me.
Cheers rover--rod
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