Pursuing wings and other things…but how many will I see? Take a guess!

Posted on by pursuingwings2016

preparations continues, I have got as far as writing a list of things I need to buy and have even ticked a couple of things off it. imageSadly the new car idea has been firmly rejected!!!

I am trying to be more active, to get a bit fitter in readiness for 2016 and if nothing else our garden is getting more of an autumn clearing than usual!

i have taken the opportunity to give up lots of regular commitments so that my time is free to enjoy planned trips away and to be able to just dash off if something interesting flies in. My memory doesn’t stretch far enough back to remember a time when I had nothing I was responsible for and I must admit it is a rather good feeling! I will undoubtedly be ready to resume some of them again after my year spent galavanting!

my imagination has been soaring ahead as I wonder what I will see next year. How many birds, moths, reptiles, mammals etc might be on my lists? I thought it would be fun to ask you to make a guess, before I begin how many different living creatures do you think I will see and identify?

I am advised that I should be aiming for 300 birds (I have only once seen over 200 in a year but of course 2016 is special), we have only been mothing since June and have had 196 different ones so far so I hope that gives you an idea of the numbers that we may see in a year. Other insects etc (only counting ones I can I’d) and then there are the mammals, reptiles, amphibians, well your guess is as good as any ones.

So add them all up and what is the total species you think I might see?

not sure what I am guessing yet but it will be good to set myself a target.

please leave your guess in the comments here and may the best man/woman/child win! Who knows I may even find a little prize on my travels 😉

14 thoughts on “Pursuing wings and other things…but how many will I see? Take a guess!”

  1. 299 birds life’s like that
    307moths if you manage to use your traps while travelling
    At least 3 Mammals lol
    17 reptiles hopefully nothing nasty in the wrong place
    Whether your lists are long or short I reckon you will have some wonderful sightings.

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  3. Quite difficult. I would be impressed with 250 birds. What about plants, fungi? Need precise information before guessing.
    Take several sets of bootlaces .. and maybe a bit more than pacamac.

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  4. I’m gonna say 1000. I have a fever at the moment so you can blame it on that. Shame your not doing fungi, I stumbled across fly agaric in Welwyn Garden City of all places, last week. Very surreal. It was left in situ; the fever is unrelated!

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  6. I think you will get 300+ birds, 300+ moths and butterflies, dragonflies, bees, hoverflies and the likes should easily get you another 50. I reckon 20-25 mammals is realistic and reptiles and amphibians should add another 10-15. That lot would get you to about 690 but I reckon you could hit 750 (could go higher if you also do arachnids, fish and molluscs, a bit of rockpooling could add a few species).

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  7. So do we assume that you won’t be going to the Zoo at anytime? It’s amazing what a simple question can have you doing of an evening on the Internet…….There are 750 species at London Zoo!. Also from what I can make out there are approx 1,100,000 species on the planet so I am pretty sure you won’t get to see all of them so my guess won’t be more than that 😀 Please confirm that trips to the zoo will be excluded from your results and I will make my guess 😆

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  8. According to Wikipedia, there are 8.7 million non-bacterial and non-archaeal species – I take this to mean visible. There are five highly populated continents although some species will be on more than one continent so let’s divide by four. Britain may have a tenth of all European species; you will only cover a fifth of possible habitats and, because many will be tiny, I am going to assume a 1% success rate which gives you a reasonable target of 435 species. Being a Richards, you will want a stretching target so let’s say 500.

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