On a perfect, sunny, mid morning in early June, our group of experts gathered in the Garden. The first wildlife that I spotted were a number of swifts circling overhead. This year, our resident, ornithologist, Councillor Clare Jeapes, was joined by Mike from Islington Swifts, who has done so much to inform Islington residents about these wonderful birds and help them install swift boxes. There seem to be fewer swifts this year than last, but he reassured us that this may be because of a cold, wet spring, and hoped that we would see numbers increase. As well as the birds which can be seen on a daily basis, our Treasurer, Annabel, pointed to a woodpecker (usually heard rather than seen) flying across the garden in its unmistakable flight.

Nicola, former Chair, stepped in to check the flora after our usual expert was unable to participate, and was rewarded by finding a splendid clump of fern grass.

Will, who has been leading the Bioblitz since it began in 2017, had by now set up his equipment for examining our remarkable pond life, which was as abundant as ever, including smooth newts, tadpoles of the common frog, pond skaters and water boatmen, red and blue damsel flies and the rat-tailed maggot. Will’s explanations of the life cycle of the newt and other creatures kept an appreciative audience in rapt attention.

Will was accompanied by Tom, Oxford University’s spider and bug expert (he has starred on Countryfile). It was disappointing that it was not possible to find the rare Mediterranean tube-web spider, Segestria Florentina, which we had found two years ago, but in addition to a number of spider species, Tom found a lovely stag beetle and several hover flies.

We are already looking forward to next year and if you have an expertise who would like to share, please do contact the garden.  We are looking for a mollusc specialist; we have an array of slugs of all shapes and sizes!

Here are the flora and fauna we found:

Pond zone:

Kingdom Animalia

Phylum Chordata

Class Amphibia:

 Smooth Newt – Lissotriton vulgaris

Common Frog (tadpole) – Rana temporaria

Phylum Arthropoda

Class Insecta

Order Hemiptera (true bugs):

Pond Skater – Gerris lacustris

Water boatman – Corixa sp

Backswimmer – Notonecta glauca

Order Odonata (damselflies and dragonflies):

Large Red Damselfly – Pyrrhosoma nymphula

Common Blue Damselfly – Enallagma cyathigerum

Order Ephemeroptera (mayflies):

Mayfly nymph – Siphlonurus sp

Order Diptera (true flies):

Soldier Fly (larva) – Stratiomys sp

Rat-tailed maggot – Eristalis sp

Midge (larva) – Chironomus sp

Phantom Midge (larva)  – Chaoborus sp

Order Trichoptera (caddis flies) NB ID based on cases rather than dissection of larvae

Limnophilus rhombicus

Limnophilus stigma

 Class Crustacea

Water flea – Daphnia sp

Seed Shrimp – Ostracod (Class only)

Phylum Mollusca:

Ramshorn Snail – Planorbis planorbis

Flat Ramshorn – Planorbis complanatus

Wandering Snail – Limnaea pereger

Horny Orb-shell – Sphaerium corneum

Pea Mussel – Pisidium sp

Phylum Platyhelminthes:

Planarian flatworm, 2 species at least, unknown genus

Kingdom Plantae:

Yellow Flag – Iris pseudacorus

Marsh Marigold – Caltha palustris

Water mint – Mentha aquatica

Curled Pondweed – Potamogeton crispus

Water starwort – Callitriche stagnalis

Birds:

This list comprises of bird species seen or heard over the past 10 months. (’22 into ’23)

House sparrow

Great tit

Blue tit

Coal tit

Goldfinch

Dunnock

Wren

Robin

Blackbird

Thrush (unable to see whether song or mistle thrush)

Great spotted woodpecker

Magpie

Jay

Crow (Carrion crow)

Ring necked parakeet

Wood pigeon

Feral pigeon

Flying above KHWG:

Herring gull

Swift

Crow

Rarely seen but occasionally present:

Sparrowhawk

Winter visitors:

Redwing

Fieldfare

Spiders and bugs:

Flora:

Please follow this link for a full list of flora: King-Henrys-Walk-Community-Garden-Bioblitz-2023 plants