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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Matt Prince" data-source="post: 1787519" data-attributes="member: 52862">Easter Weekend 2nd/3rd/4th/5th April 2010 Friday started the long weekend well with an excellent organised rockpool ramble down at Wembury. As well as being good fun, it was a chance to ask awkward questions about seaweed and the like. Thanks to Kat the warden and the volunteers, for answering all the 'whats this' questions we threw at them. Notable species included a stunning spiny starfish, shore rockling, worm pipefish, several crabs, and a cracking strawberry anemone.On the way back from Wembury, Cowslip and Wild Garlic. Then checking for Toothwort at Chudleigh we found the plant just starting to emerge on a dogmuck ridden footpath.Last thing for the day we popped into bowling green to check out the hirundine flock, a few sand martins amongst the swallows.Saturday, Marsh Marigold @ Countess Wear then we returned to Wembury for yet another rock pool ramble. Less new species but still some good stuff. 5 bearded rockling, cornish clingfish, arctic cowrie for example. A lively velvet swimming crab wasn't new, but did distinguish itself by falling for my finger as bait. Finally I got to put names to the the bright green seaweed that was everywhere, predictably, two different species for two different points on the shore, Sea Lettuce and Gutweed.Sunday was a trip to Seaton Marshes, again no luck with the otter. Mini beasts found included a red weevil, and a couple of spiders. Then a quick tour of Northleigh where Nicola got me a few plants, Coltsfoot, Moschatel and Wood Anenome.We popped into the warren but not sign of the crocus yet, and we saw very little, apart from a sedge in flower - dwarf sedge? One for the yet-to-be-identified list.Later we headed out to Buckfastleigh, seeing plenty of Dog Violet as we waited with the bat detector. As it was just getting dark a large bat flew past, straight up the small path between Nicola and I. We waited quietly on a bench and there were many more, some almost touching us. The detector picked up the distinctive warble of horeshoe bats, and we had had a good number of greater horsehoes pass us, and a couple of lessers.Monday started with a 2 spot ladybird, drone fly and hairy bittercress all within yards of the front door. A trip to Exmouth and foxholes lane produced Sandwich Tern and then a brief walk out to Orcombe point produced some Common Chickweed and Common Storksbill and a lone Green Winged Orchid, there will soon be hundreds showing. Some mini beasts incuded a housefly, a little hoverfly and a little ichnueumon that endoparasitises hover-flies. A large beetle was perplexing in that it looked like a ground beetle but had the wrong number of segments on the tarsi - bloody nosed beetle perhaps? Even more frustrating, and sad, was finding a shrew twitching on the footpath, it was still alive and feisty enough to try and bite, but not running around like it should be, Nicola photographed it and put it under a hedge out of the immediate reach of passing dogs. Subsequent examination of the photographs suggest a young common shrew.Sites: Wembury, Chudliegh, Bowling Green, Countess Wear, Northleigh, Orcombe PointNew Species: Sand Martin, Sandwich Tern, 2 Spot Ladybird, Apion frumentarium (weevil), Cowslip, Toothwort, Wild Garlic, Dog Violet, Coltsfoot, Wood Anemone, Moschatel, Hairy Bittercress, Common Storksbill, Common Chickweed, Shepherds Purse, Green Alkanet. Greater and Lesser Horshoe Bat, Common Shrew, Orange Sponge, Irish Moss, Cushion Starfish, Spiny Starfish, Green Shore Clab, Broad-Clawed Porcelain Crab, Edible Crab, Velvet Swimming Crab, Wireweed, phtomatolithon purpureum, worm pipefish, coral weed, star ascidian, egg wrack, dog whelk, strawberry anemone, polysiphonia lanosa, rock goby, shore rockling, tonicella rubra (chiton), 5 bearded rockling, cornish clingfish, long spined porcupinefish, netted dogwhelk (eggs), arctic cowrie, painted topshell, grey topshell, common sea slug, sea lemon, sea lettuce, gutweed,  drone fly, helina reversio (house fly), diplazon laetatorius (ichneumon), melanostoma scalare (hover-fly), pardosa proxima (wolf-spider), nursery web spider.Unidentified/Pending : Small sedge, large beetle, ants, mottlegill and inkcap funghiTotals: Birds 148; Butters 2; Flora 85; Funghi 12; Grasshoppers 1; Mammals 10; Marine 45; Misc 5; Moss&Lichens 6; Moths 2; Spiders 3; Beetles 4Grand Total 323A note on id - some of the insect identifications are optimistic, and should be taken as most likely candidate from multiple species within a genera. In many cases full specific identification is only possible with microscopic examination of genitalia or some such (pardosa species for example).</blockquote>

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