Pan Listing Begins with good birding !

A great start to the Pan listing year. I have quickly confirmed the presence of a few species I knew were about, stuff like a few  fungi, lichens, some common trees and plants. Stuff that, baring something major, would still be present come New Years Day.

Wrinkled crust

The Poor weather on New Years Day proved a blessing. Braving the elements it was clear a lot of birds were pinned down. The fishing pool held Tufted Duck, Goosander, 3 Mute Swans ( actually very rarely seen on the patch) but not as rare as a grounded Merlin, which I stumbled across nearby ! ( no sign since) The adjacent fields held a good mixed flock of winter thrushes, including the first Fieldfares actually on the deck this winter.

Patch rarity

 The following day, another patch mega, I flushed a bird whilst slightly "off road" in the wood, which I watched fly away low and straight deeper into the wood. A Woodcock !
The session got even better when I spotted a very fine Red Fox going about his business
The New Years birding carried on being good. A flock of c30  Lesser Redpoll were the first of the winter, with a few Siskin mixed in for good measure. The Kingfisher gave itself up nice and early in the year too, rapidly getting me up near 50 on my birdlist. I usually average around 55 for January.
Apart from 7 spot Ladybird, I was able to add another species from the walk , the Fly, Photomyza ilicis aka Holly Leaf Minor, and the mine contained the pupae of the fly.Two species for the price of one !

Holly Leaf Mine with Pupae of the  fly Phytomyza ilicis

Back to fungi, a lot found on the 4th. This one I had read about as being fairly common on Ash, but need to revisit it

Anthonia Radiata/Lecidella elaeochroma

 Was pleased to find a new one for me, a Knopper Gall induced by a gall wasp, Andricus quercuscalicis. Looking forward to lots more varieties later in the year. I'm counting them as evidence of causative species if  organism not found.

Knopper Gall

So, a nice solid start, approaching 100 species and a few in the 'To ID' box for those dark after work evenings. It's going to get harder but looking forward to the challenge !
 For a list of all species, check the species recorded page, which I will update every week or so, and tweak as necessary if I have doubts about definitive ID's.

Birds 49
Fungi  12
Mammals 3
Flies 1
Plants 18
Woodlice 1
Beetles 1
Galls 3