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Adventures and Learning

I’m writing yet another blog post whilst tired and in recovery from a fantastic few days. Seems to be the way of life for me at the moment, but I’m not complaining!

The week began with office work, which I might have previously thought to be a bit boring. However, I’m working on some exciting projects so the office work is actually enjoyable, especially as I know that the projects will have good end results (fingers crossed!). Additionally I was still buzzing from the AFON conference the week before (hugely inspirational and amazing and such!).

It wasn’t all office work mind, I was instructed to go explore some of RWT‘s nature reserves aside from Gilfach. So I took myself off to Llanbwchllyn Lake, where I had an enjoyable time admiring the lake and the wildlife. I saw one of my favourite birds, the Great Crested Grebe, which is a species that I’ve not seen in ages so I was rather happy.

I also took the time to really appreciate nature, sitting and closing my eyes, listening to the sounds around me – the rustling leaves, the babbling of a bird, the buzzing of the insects. It was nice to take a step back from my usual stance of taking photos of everything and trying to identify everything, and just appreciate it being there. I did also my eyes again to take photos (but without trying to identify the animals).

The reason I’m so tired is that I’ve just got back from a three day ecology course on Animal Diversity, held at the lovely Denmark Farm Conservation Centre. Wow, what a course! My head is absolutely full of fascinating information and interesting facts – sea urchins have a funky anatomical feature called ‘Aristotle’s Lantern’, over 95% of all animals are invertebrates, and platypus (platypi plural?) are really rather odd!

I’d like to take this opportunity to say just how awesome these ecology courses are – they’re provided by the Lifelong Learning department of Aberystwyth University, and they are such fantastic value (£80 early bird for a 10 credit module)! I have done a number of modules now, and I am working towards getting my Certificate in Field Ecology, which is rather exciting. However, the modules can just be taken separately, and even just for fun! Because I love them so much, I have now become a Student Rep for the Ecology courses, so looking forward to getting even more involved with them!

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I’m not holding out for a hero – I just met loads of them

This week’s title came to me as I was driving away from the conference and listening to my music and the classic ‘Holding Out For A Hero’ started playing, and I realised that in terms of young conservationists – I just met loads of heroes at the conference!

My brain is spinning as I write this, I’ve literally just got back to mid-Wales and somehow need to transform my random notes into an understandable and hopefully quite good blog post. Apologies if I fail, and also for the minimal number of photos – I was too busy taking notes to take many photos!

So why is exactly is my head spinning? Well, on Friday and Saturday I was fortunate enough to attend one of the best conservation events I have ever been to, and I’ve been to a good few events. It was a conference run by A Focus On Nature (website here, Facebook here, Twitter here), which is a network for young conservationists. Imagine the scene, a lecture hall in Cambridge full of passionate, excited and like-minded people … and then you get a tiny inkling of how amazing it was.

Normally when I meet young conservationists, there are normally 1-2 of us (exception being training days back at Dorset Wildlife Trust), so to have a hundred plus was just so fantastic and thrilling.

What actually happened at the conference? There were debates – a highly popular one being Teen Wolf: Unleashing the wild connection in children, a variety of talks (including conservation and politics, and career advice) and my favourite aspect, the workshops. For the latter, I was lucky enough to attend four brilliant ones led by truely inspiring young conservationists and since I enjoyed them so much, I’m giving them a small section each in this blog post.

If you want to read up on what was happening from a variety of people – (a) look at the blogs below, I bet that a number of those will soon have (or already have) a blog post about the conference, and (b) look at the #VisionForNature on Twitter.

Before I delve into the workshops, I just have to say a massive thank you to AFON for the conference, and to Lucy McRobert for founding it. A superb group and the best conference I’ve ever been to! However, minus points to Lucy for pointing me out to EVERYONE in the final stages of the conference (due to all the tweeting I had done). So much embarassment!

Wildlife Filmmaking, with Cain Scrimgeour

I wasn’t sure about attending this, as I’ve never done any wildlife filming (except for videoing zebra for my dissertation, but that didn’t involve worrying too much about the quality of the video). However, I decided that one of the points of coming to a conference was to learn new skills so I put my name down and turned up. I am thoroughly glad I did. First, I got to see some of Cain’s work and it is truely spectacular.

Second, I got to draw out my first ever storyboard! We were partnered up and then set the challenge to come up with a short wildlife film set in the alleyway. The theme of mine was Noticing Nature, with the first shots focussing on small things happening in the alleyway – a dandelion seed caught in a spiders’ web, an insect walking across moss. Then urban elements would start to filter in, you’d see a drainpipe in the background of a fern shot and the double yellow lines next to a feather. Then finally, the shot of the alleyway – which would include everything you’d seen previously. As someone who has never thought about this kind of thing before, I found it rather exciting and enjoyable!

Attitudes and Values in Communications, with Ralph Underhill

Again, I was a little unsure about this workshop, I didn’t know what it would cover. Boy, was my mind blown! Discussions on what values all humans hold and how people prioritise, and how they’re linked together, and how they can be affected by words and other values. It was all very deep, and I’m not entirely sure how much I will remember. However, I will definitely read up on it because I do want to communicate better and inspire more people.

Online Communications, with James Borrell

I was really looking forward to this workshop, I’d come across James Borrell sometime last year and was immediately impressed by all the work he does. In addition, I had noted that he was particularly good at communicating online, so a chance to learn from him was an absolute must! The workshop launched with a discussion on what is science communication and why is it important in conservation? We then went on to talk about the different ways in which to do so and tips for how to do so well. My favourite quote from him was “One person can have a really big impact” because that’s quite inspiring for me to try and become that one person, but also to see if I can inspire others to have an impact.

Waxwinging Lyrical: nature writing and environmental journalism, with Peter Cooper

This workshop was another must for me naturally since I write a blog! As well as discussing the differences between nature writing and environmental journalism, we looked at good examples of both and the benefits of the varying ways in which they can be done. When posed with the question “What can nature writing and environmental journalism do for the conservation movement”, I used a personal example in that my writing this blog and being so enthusiastic in general has meant that friends and family send me photos of things they see. Me being me, I’ve helped them to identify them and then encouraged them to send in their sightings to their local county recorders / national recording schemes! For me, there is almost no better outcome from this blog than inspiring non-conservationists/naturalists to contribute towards conservation.

Coming away from the conference, I feel I’ve learnt a number of things.

(a) I feel utterly inspired. Referring back to the title of this blog post, I met so many fantastic people who are due to be (and many already are) incredible heroes for the natural world. I know that we (yes, I’ve decided to include myself in there) will achieve great things in conservation – both by ourselves and as a group.

(b) Online communications are as important as I thought they were, so that’s a relief.

(c) I have a much greater self-confidence, I know that I have some excellent skills, abilities and ideas. Talking to people reaffirmed this, and I’m excited to continue working within conservation.

(d) Even more excitement, I have an upcoming project in the planning stages that I cannot wait to be launched. Whilst it isn’t ready to be announced publicly quite yet, talking to people at the conference has made me determined to continue with the project as everyone commented that it was a great idea. Watch this space!

(e) That I am getting better at stepping out of my comfort zone. During the conference, I made a real effort to contribute to debates – asking questions and making comments (even in the big lecture hall when everyone was there!), and to network with new people. I can be quite an introvert sometimes, so it was really and incredibly nerve-wracking. I remember tweeting after asking a question in one of the big debates, commenting that I was all shaky from the nerves. But I do have good comments to make and questions to ask, so I made myself do so. Hopefully one day, it will get easier!

As for networking, it’s a vital part of being at a conference. In particular at this one, I’ve made some brilliant contacts – finding people who are interesting in getting involved with my upcoming project, promoting where I work, hearing other people’s comments on something we’ve got in common, and getting offered opportunities!

(f) Finally, I wanted to share my #VisionForNature, shared by Twitter by Beth Aucott. Since my interests lie in engagement, I feel that this is my vision:

Lastly, I wanted to finish with giving you the opportunity to discover some of these amazing young conservationists that I met at the conference, so below is a list of bloggers and then below that, some others who don’t have a blog but at least have a Twitter account, so you can (and should) follow them there). I should note, there is no set order for the people below, I’m literally writing them down as I think of them. And if I have missed out anyone important, apologies.

Bloggers

Lucy McRobert (@LucyMcRobert1): http://www.afocusonnature.org/ *actually slight order preference here as Lucy is the founder of AFON so appropriate that I put her first!

Matt Williams (@mattadamw): http://mattadamwilliams.co.uk/

James Borrell (@James_Borrell): http://www.jamesborrell.com/

Cain Scrimgeour (@cainscrimgeour): http://cainscrimgeour.co.uk/

Findlay Wilder (@WildeAboutBirds): http://wildeaboutbirds.blogspot.co.uk/

Beth Aucott (@BethAucott): http://bethaucott.wordpress.com/

Lucy Radford: http://beinghummingbirds.com/

Josie Hewitt (@josiethebirder): http://blog.josiehewittphotography.co.uk/

Alex Berryman (@ABWildlifePhoto): http://alexberrymanphotography.blogspot.co.uk/?m=1

Amy Robjohns (@amythebirder): http://birdingaroundhampshire.wordpress.com/

Unknown (annoyingly I can’t find the reference of who gave this to me): http://therealark.wordpress.com/welcome-to-noahs-ark/

Sean Foote (@Portland_Nature): http://theportlandnaturalist.blogspot.co.uk/

Ryan Clark (@RyanClarkNature): http://ryanclarkecology.wordpress.com/

Mya-Rose Craig: http://birdgirluk.blogspot.co.uk/

Amy Schwartz (@lizardschwartz): http://southwaleswildlife.blogspot.co.uk/

Peter Cooper (@PeteMRCooper): http://petecooperwildlife.wordpress.com/

A Wildlife Boy (@AWildlifeBoy): http://wildlifeboy.wordpress.com/

Ed Marshall (@edmarshallphoto): http://www.edmarshallwildimages.co.uk/

Stephen Le Quesne (@SLQuesne): *currently won’t load for me, will update soon

Heather-Louise Devey (@feraheather): http://thedenofwildintrigue.blogspot.co.uk/

Other Young Conservationists on Twitter

Joe Stockwell: @Joe_stockwell

Bex Cartwright: @Bex_Cartwright

Sam Manning: @wildlifebloke

Jessica Mead: @jessmeadmarine

Sarah Hudson: @Sludderz

Chloe Goddard: @ChloeMayGoddard

Melissa Spiers: @mcspiers

Nadine Atchinson-Balmond: @nadineatch

Sarah Hodgson: @shodge_7

Emma Ackerley: @EmmaAckerley27

Matt Collis: @MattCollis9

Ricky Whelan: @RickyWhelan

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Interesting inverts

This week I’ve been amazed by the variety of wildlife – notably the terrestrial invertebrates. As this year has progressed, I have found that I am getting really intrigued by inverts, especially insects! The range of shapes, sizes, colours and so on – and even just in one group (such as my favourite group, the moths!).

Below are some of the moths I’ve caught this weekend, whilst not showing the extremes in the range of shapes and so on, they are all lovely moths I think – I can’t decide which one I like the most! Naturally all of the species has been noted down and will be sent to the county recorders.

A highlight of the week was discovering a new and slightly weird fly. It’s called a Giant Tachinid Fly (Tachina grossa), which lays its eggs in the caterpillars of moths (usually big hairy caterpillars such as the Oak Eggar Moth Caterpillar). When the young hatch, they then eat the caterpillar! Gross but fascinating! The fly itself also looks pretty odd, I don’t know if the photo below shows just how big it is. It was the size of a stereotypical bumblebee, absolutely huge and really loud when buzzing about!

Giant Tachinid Fly (T.grossa)

Giant Tachinid Fly (T.grossa)

I also got out onto the reserve a bit more this week, enjoying the views in the sunshine and looking for butterflies. I’ve realised that none of my previous blog posts actually featured any photos of the reserve, so here are a few to make up for that:

What else has happened this week? I went off to a Field Studies Council – Preston Montford in Shropshire, to learn about spiders and harvestmen. It was a great day, though I’m a little overwhelmed at the identification of them! I did get a free spi-pot where you’re able to immobilise the spider / harvestmen without harming them, so it’s possible to get a really good look at them and their anatomy.

As mentioned before, I went looking for butterflies on the reserve and saw Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock and Small Copper. I also took some photos of wildflowers to practice my wildflower ID. Whilst out, I also saw a number of cool fungi, but I don’t know fungus identification at all I’m afraid.

And then, saving one of the best parts of the week until last, whilst I was out on this reserve adventure, I saw a woodpecker! Unfortunately it wasn’t being very obliging for taking photographs, but I don’t mind too much, I saw a woodpecker!

Woodpecker!

Woodpecker!

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Beginning to settle in

The past week has seen me working on a variety of tasks at work – including (but definitely not limited to) making new information displays for the visitor centre, writing Facebook posts for the Trust, rearranging some of the interpretation at the centre, starting research into a report that I will be writing and of course, the usual running of the visitor centre for the long weekend (Fri-Mon).

I say “the usual”, but each day is different! I see different species, particularly if I’ve been moth trapping or decide to go out with a sweep net (tomorrow’s plan), listen to a variety of programs as I work if the centre is very quiet (mostly Radio 4 – Just A Minute, Ramblings, Inside Science and Costing The Earth), and every time someone walks into the centre, I know that something new will happen. I have had such a variety of conversations this week – the politics of conservation, the process of CRB checks and the Scouting movement, the bizarre forms of ladybird larvae, and of course, how cool moths are! Inevitably, I meet at least one new dog every day which I absolutely love.

So a round-up of some of this week’s wildlife. Not many butterflies as the summer draws to a close, but I did see a new favourite of mine – the Small Copper Butterfly. And I took a photo of it that is now one of my favourite butterfly photos that I’ve ever taken. It was resting on the wall of the Visitors Centre above my head, and I had to lean into the wall and look up to get the photo. I feel like it’s thinking “What are you doing?!” There were also moths about of course, including some new ones for me such as the Autumnal Rustic, Hedge Rustic and Rosy Rustic (I sense a theme …), and the ever-fabulous Canary-shouldered Thorn.

I also found a dead bee, which made me sad. But I took the opportunity to study it closely, and saw that what I believe is it’s tongue sticking out the mouth. There are three parts to the tongue it seems. Very interesting, and now I want to look into bee anatomy.

Three-part tongue?!

Three-part tongue?!

Towards the end of the week, I went to a local theatre production by Mid-Powys Youth Theatre at the Willow Globe (open air theatre- my favourite!). They were performing Humans On Trial – An Ecological Fable, and they were fantastic! The premise is that humans are trial for their actions against animals. With witnesses, a judge, a prosecution lawyer and a defence lawyer, the crimes of the accused are laid forth and debated. It’s a great play and very thought-provoking. If you get the opportunity to see it, do so!

Next week should bring even more variety as I continue moth trapping, go out with the sweep net, potentially assist on a bat survey, sort through some of the interpretation at the centre (including skulls!) and attempt some wildflower identification.

 

You can follow the wildlife, news and events of Gilfach by following #GilfachReserve on Twitter!

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Shersby’s back, tell a friend

Well, that break turned out to be slightly longer than planned, but a lot has happened including a life-changing decision, a couple of holidays and more!

To start with, the BIG SCARY life-changing decision. As of the beginning of August, I was no longer a trainee with Dorset Wildlife Trust but on a Jobs Growth Wales position with Radnorshire Wildlife Trust (in mid-Wales). I am now the Assistant Environmental Engagement Officer at RWT!

To cut it short, I do the day-to-day running of the visitor centre at Gilfach Reserve (follow #GilfachReserve on Twitter for wildlife sightings and events!), have started doing some of the social media for the Trust (see my most recent Facebook post!) and will be assisting with events, activities and school groups. There is also the opportunity to do more surveying, which I am thrilled about – I’m already running a moth trap at the reserve and hope to assist others in the Trust with their survey work.

So backtracking to the end of my traineeship in Dorset – despite having a new job to prepare for (and all the preparation of moving house / finding somewhere to live / etc), I still had plenty to get on with. The biggest thing that was taking over my life was planning for the Big Wild Chesil Event, a celebration of Chesil’s wildlife and the work of Dorset Wildlife Trust. It was a fabulous day in the end (albeit slightly stressful since I was the organiser!), and I think my favourite bit was probably trying some Morris Dancing – I do believe there is a photo somewhere, but I won’t look too hard for it!

I also managed to fit in some adventuring before I left Dorset, with the result of seeing a wide variety of species – some of which I hadn’t seen before. Thanks to Sean Foote for doing most of the identification!

Holiday-wise, I went a minibreak to Anglesey with family. We went off to the Anglesey Show which was fantastic! I think the most thrilling bit was the Shetland Pony Grand National, there was so much drama! And it is possibly one of the cutest things I have ever seen! We also went to Newborough Beach where I may have annoyed my parents slightly by stopping to take photos of lots of invertebrates. However, by doing so, I also saw a red squirrel which they didn’t see! No photo though as it was very quick and off in the distance. NB: why was there a red squirrel at the beach? There’s also lots of woodland there!

So yes, quite a lot has occurred and it’s all been a bit mad! But then, that’s life and I’ve been enjoying it, and I’ve seen lots of beautiful wildlife.

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If a tree falls in the forest …

This week has seen a lot of office work again as I try to get everything sorted for summer, and my big event at the event of July. I was lamenting time spent indoors at the beginning of the week when walking back to my car, when a beautiful Small Tortoiseshell butterfly landed on the steps in front of me. What a stunning specimen!

Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly

Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly

I was let out of the office on Wednesday for some summer tree identification. After some theory and samples in the morning at DWT’s HQ, we headed out to Thorncombe Woods near Dorchester. It’s a nice mix of conifers, hazel coppice and sycamores. It was a lot of un, and I think I’m more confident with tree ID from their leaves, though I do need to practice – quite difficult at Chesil Beach!!

We saw some fab wildlife at Brooklands before we left, and some dragonflies / damselflies at a pond in Thorncombe.

On Thursday, I took the new Chesil / Lorton trainee (Yup, there’s a new one! She’s called Nadine and she’s cool), to Lorton Meadows so she could see the other spot where she would be working. It was a glorious day, though a tad breezy – there weren’t as many butterflies as I hoped. However, our butterfly / Odonata species list was still impressive: Red Admiral, Marbled White, Small Skipper, Peacock, Meadow Brown, Ringlet, Common Darter Dragonfly, Emperor Dragonfly, Broad-bodied Chaser Dragonfly and Blue-tailed Damselfly. Not bad for a quick walk! There may have been a couple of other species, but they didn’t stay still long enough to be photographed (I’m not good enough to ID most species in flight although I can do a couple now!).

My favourite photo from Lorton - an immature male Common Darter dragonfly, resting on the branch of an apple tree!

My favourite photo from Lorton – an immature male Common Darter dragonfly, resting on the branch of an apple tree!

A short (in comparison to other blog posts) but sweet blog post there about this week’s wildlife. In other news, my extra writing last week about the Ladybird app has since resulted in me being asked to become a tester for the new version of the app AND an Android tester for the Wildlife Trusts app (currently just available in Apple)!

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Wildlife despite office days

Aye, I know, it’s a Monday and I’m posting now instead of a Sunday. But I’d worked all day on the Sunday at a food fair (more later), having camped overnight (therefore an early wake-up) and finishing with a 3-ish hour long drive back to Dorset. Thus I got home and collapsed.

In all honesty, my last week hasn’t been as jam-packed as most of my traineeship has been so far. I begun the week helping the Lorton Conservation Officer with a school group on a river in Dorchester, specifically I was helping with the kick sampling part to find the invertebrates living in the river. We found a nice variety, including a few different types of mayfly nymphs – squat, burrowing, swimming and I think flattened as well! Unfortunately no photos as I was too busy in the river!

The rest of the week was pretty much all in the office. A lot of the work I do means sitting at a computer for a long time, or on the phone! I escaped to Portland one evening and went for a walk on Broadcroft Quarry. There were a few different species of butterflies about – Marbled White, Ringlet, Small Skipper, Large Skipper and a few blues. I also saw some bunnies (musn’t say the R-word on Portland!), and managed to get a decent photo of a Whitethroat (bird)!

Another trip to Surrey saw me being roped into helping my partner’s relatives at a food fair. It was being held at Priory Farm and had a range of local producers. We were selling Yum Cha iced tea, and it was actually very enjoyable. Being in community engagement anyway, I do enjoy interacting with people. Plus I love the iced tea (sour plum flavour is lush – drinking it as I write this post!) so it was quite easy to be enthusiastic about it.

NB: Don’t you just love my scarf here? It was a gift – probably one of the best presents I’ve ever had!

And that’s my week! Like I said, not overly busy wildlife-wise but I got lots done in the office so its swings and roundabouts. Oh, before I forget, I did get featured in the local newspaper, Dorset Echo, for the bird ringing that I helped with a couple of weeks ago. A bit of promotion from last time I was in there – this time I got a photo AND a quote!

http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/features/echo_country/11296267.Bird_ringers_make_first_trip_on_Portland/

With a GBB Gull chick

With a GBB Gull chick

I’ll take this opportunity to bring your attention to my favourite wildlife app – iRecord Ladybirds. It’s part of the UK Ladybird Survey, run by Dr Helen Roy of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. I particularly like this app as you can compare your photo of the ladybird to images on the app, and compare them side by side, which is so useful! As part of the record, you fill in all the usual details – location (can be done by GPS), habitat (options available), number seen, etc.

Ladybird in Wareham

Ladybird in Wareham

Best of all – it’s FREE! I may have graduated but I’m still in student mode and enjoy free things! It’s available on both Apple and Android systems. It’s so easy to do, so I thoroughly recommend it!

I’m also investigating other wildlife apps, so do comment if you do / don’t want me to discuss them on my blog!

 

 

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If I cease searching, then, woe is me, I am lost.

I came across the above quote when trying to decide on the post title (when tired, my brain can’t think of quotes so I resort to the internet). It’s by Van Gogh, and I’d say it is very true here. I love searching out new wildlife and / or new information, and to no longer do so would mean that I would no longer be me (and thus, I would be lost). The past week has been no exception – I’ve been to new places, seen new species and met new people, so safe to say that I’m still myself!

But before that, I managed to forget an important photo from last week’s blog post –  a rare photo of myself!

With a GBB Gull chick

With a GBB Gull chick

I was extremely excited about Tuesday’s adventure as we were out looking for dormice (also bats and veteran trees, but they’re not as cute and fluffy as dormice!). Unfortunately nobody told the dormice I was excited to meet them as we had a grand total of zero in the nestboxes. Oh well, I’ve met some before. We did see plenty of other interesting wildlife as we were on a lovely reserve called Kilwood Reserve.

After the woodland adventures, I was off another trip to Surrey. My last foray there saw me getting excited about damselflies, and rightly so because they’re stunning insects by anyone’s measurement. This trip also included some amazing wildlife – the damselflies again, but also some bees (always good to see), orchids and a new species of butterfly for me, what I believe is a Dark Green Fritilliary!

 

And of course, I cannot miss out one of the best wildlife sights of my visit – a dunnock nest hidden away within the vines on the farm!

Dunnock chicks

Dunnock chicks

Back in Dorset, the latter half of the week was a whirlwind of excitement. Beginning with a walk with my traineeship mentor, Emily Brown, on Chesil Beach and Hamm Beach to practice some wildflower ID.

Naturally, we also saw a variety of insects, as well as a juvenile Pied Wagtail (one of my favourite birds!)

My weekend kicked off in Swanage, where I got to camp on the seafront (practically on the beach itself) before assisting with the Wild About Swanage event. One of my morning assignments was to walk along the beach (sandy beach so I had to be barefoot!), handing out flyers to everyone. I tell you, that was arduous work!

Swanage beach - empty at dusk!

Swanage beach – empty at dusk!

 

The weekend continue with a joint event between the Dorset Branch of Butterfly Conservation and the Dorset Moth Group, running a moth trap up at Broadcroft Quarry. Again I got to camp (note to self: take an eyemask and earplugs when camping AND moth trapping! [light from the moth trap and noise from the generator!]), which was very exciting – even though I was only a mile or so from where I live. Many thanks to the groups for this event, it was brilliant! Special thanks to Nigel Spring for the barbeque and running the event, and to Sean Foote and Jack Oughton for doing most of the identification.

As expected, we caught a great variety of moths and I have to admit that I have probably forgotten the names of most of them by now!

There were many many Six-spot Burnet moths flying about as well, I actually found these two in the act!

Six-spot Burnet Moths

Six-spot Burnet Moths

In the morning, we headed out for a wildflower / butterfly walk which, again, saw me coming across new species of butterfly. (to myself, not to science) – Marbled White, Silver-studded Blue, Small Blue and Small Skipper.

And as I left Broadcroft Quarry, I saw this beautiful Kestrel hovering and hunting for its dinner.

Hovering Kestrel

Hovering Kestrel

NB: You may have noticed that I’ve been playing around with the presentation of photographs, feedback would be appreciated on which style(s) you like!

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Doing too much cool stuff, as usual!

The week began with a bang, or rather it began with squawking and chirping. I was invited out to the Portland Port breakwaters by Steve Hales who takes me birdringing. The Portland Port Authority and the local birdringers (including Steve) were going out there to ring the chicks of Great Black-backed Gulls (GBBG) – the adults of which are the really big and quite scary-looking gulls.

The chicks however are adorable – incredibly fluffy when young, and actually still quite cute as they get older. We could only ring chicks of certain ages, i.e. once they were big enough for the ring not to slip off, and before they got too big to put the (coloured) ring on. Two types of ring were involved – a metal ring and a coloured ring, both used for identification purposes as part of the British Trust for Ornithology‘s (BTO) ringing scheme.

My first ringed bird!

My first ringed bird!

The latter ring could only be put on the older of the chicks we were ringing, and we almost couldn’t put it on a couple of them (the method for putting coloured rings on is different than for metal rings, due to the material of the ring). In total, we ringed 28 GBBG chicks. We also ringed a couple of Herring Gull chicks with metal rings, as they were nesting nearby.

Putting a ring on

Putting a ring on

So what was the purpose of ringing? By assigning a numbered ring, and thus a specific identification, to each bird, we can keep track of where they are sighted. Through this we can learn more about the different aspects of the bird species – migration patterns, survival rates (both adults and fledgings) and other population information.

I’m very grateful to the birdringers and to the Portland Port Authority for allowing me to go on this trip, it was hugely enjoyable and one of the highlights of my time in Dorset so far.

We saw a range of ages, including chicks that were hatching on the day!

We saw a range of ages, including chicks that were hatching on the day!

Back at the Chesil Centre, I helped with a couple of school groups that we had in. First assisting with a low tide walk with 30-ish young primary school children, then leading a group myself of 15 children. I always love working with children as they are very enthusiastic about everything (hmm … does that sound rather like someone?), and I believe it is important to get children interested in wildlife whilst they’re young. Even if they don’t become scientists, they will hopefully retain an appreciation of wildlife and that we should conserve it.

My appreciation for wildlife was heightened during a trip on the Fleet Observer, this is a glass-bottomed boat which runs trips on the the Fleet. During this trip, we got great views of the underwater world, the Little Terns and even some hares (my highlight of the trip).

I also helped out with a school group up at Lorton Meadows, with one of my favourite activities – pond dipping! I consider this to be one of the best activities to do with children, as ponds are found everywhere (so what they learn will hopefully be remembered easier) and the underwater world is rather mysterious and amazing. We found a variety of creatures including efts (juvenile newts), water boatman and we also saw some dragonflies darting about. After pond dipping, they had a bug hunt in the grasses and caught some interesting insects.

Grasshopper or cricket? I've already forgotten how to differentiate!

Grasshopper or cricket? I’ve already forgotten how to differentiate!

The week finished off with a dash up to Shropshire for an ecology course. I am taking a few modules every year in ecology with the Lifelong Learning department of Aberystwyth University. Although I have a science degree, it is in a subject that I no longer want to pursue and I want to learn more ecology. So by taking these modules I can gain a wide variety of theory and practical knowledge, and even work towards a Certificate in Field / Conservation Ecology. This module was Ecology 1 – i.e. an introduction to the concepts involved in ecology including nutrient cycles, predator-prey relationships and food webs. Although I remember most of it from school, it was very useful to have it consolidated and drawn together.

The course location was at Karuna, a gorgeous family project in the Shropshire AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty). With a passion for trees, permaculture and Insight Design, this is a fabulous example of how living off the land can be done. Whilst not fully self-sufficient, they’re pretty close and it was fascinating to learn from them during the tour. One of the course members described it as “an oasis of hope”, and I thoroughly agree and hope to return there!

Just a quick note about the course tutor – a brilliant ecologist called Dr Jan Martin who seems to be all-knowledgeable! I really enjoy reading her blog which discusses sustainability, and has a brilliant name; The Snail of Happiness.

I do apologise for the long blog post – I guess I must limit the amount of cool stuff that I do! I shall end with a nice photo of the seal that we saw at the Portland Port breakwater.

Seal at Portland Port breakwater

Seal at Portland Port breakwater

 

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A bit of everything (well, almost)

I know that every week I say, “Wow, what an amazing and full-on week I’ve had, and I’ve learnt so much!” It just seems to be the nature of this traineeship (and my spare time!) to just be jam-packed with cool wildlife stuff. Despite not being able to top the Short-Toed Eagle from last week, this week has seen a great variety of wildlife in a range of habitats.

It started off with a trip up to Lorton Meadows Nature Reserve, a gorgeous place on the edge of Weymouth. It’s full of interesting wildlife (including a nesting barn owl whose chicks you can watch on a webcam!), but the focus of this trip was the mysterious underwater world as the Chesil Beach Centre volunteers and I were there to do some pond dipping!

A damselfly nymph

A damselfly nymph, Lorton Meadows

Coming up from underwater, I headed over to Fontmell Down Reserve in the north of Dorset for the big staff field trip of Dorset Wildlife Trust. Again, a variety of wildlife but I was particularly interested by the range of wildflowers there. Naturally we also saw some animals, including my favourites – some moths!

A Yellow Shell moth

A Yellow Shell moth, Fontmell Down

It was great to be out on a new reserve to me, and with knowledgeable people. With so many conservation people in one place, there was always someone on hand to tell you what a species was – and why (i.e. it’s identification features).

A Bee Orchid, Fontmell Down

A Bee Orchid, Fontmell Down

An excursion to Somerset saw a couple of the trainees learning about bumblebees and how land managers, particularly farmers, can help them – and other pollinators – out. The focus was on field margins, excellent spots for planting wildflowers. Our case study was the Frogmary Green Farm which has made the room for wildflowers, and it had worked as we saw plenty of bumblebees. One species of note was the Tree Bumblebee, and I believe the photo below shows a melanistic Tree Bumblee (i.e. it’s abdomen is black rather than the normal orange).

Melanistic Tree Bumblebee? Somerset

Melanistic Tree Bumblebee? Somerset

The big event of the week was the Little Tern Fundraising Evening at the Chesil Beach Centre where we were raising money for the Little Terns of Chesil Beach. As the second rarest breeding seabird in the UK, and the only colony of Little Terns in the southwest, this population definitely needs help. Although numbers have gradually increased, support is still needed as the eggs and chicks are so vulnerable to predators.

I still don’t have a decent photo of a Little Tern I’m afraid, so I’ve included a photo of Morgan Vaughan (the current Little Tern Officer) from the evening where he was getting excited about the eggs. You can follow Morgan on Twitter at @Morgan_Vaughan

Morgan talks about Little Tern eggs, Chesil Centre

Morgan talks about Little Tern eggs, Chesil Centre

The weekend began with a trip up to Barton Meadows Farm to learn about butterfly identification with the Dorset Branch of Butterfly Conservation. Although I knew a few species (e.g. Red Admiral / Peacock / Large Skipper), I wanted to know about the key identification features to look for when I see a butterfly. I can say that these are:

  • Family (e.g. Skippers or Blues)
  • Flight period
  • Habitat
  • Food plants
  • Behaviour
  • And last, but most obvious, patterning on wings

After a morning of theory, we put it into practice with a walk in the afternoon sun. We saw 16 butterfly species, as well as a number of moths (including Mother Shipton, Burnet Companion and Cinnabar), beetles and interesting wildflowers. A big thank you to Bill Shreeves and other members of the Dorset Branch for running the day – I know I learnt a lot and hope to get out there more often to get butterfly records!

Theory session. NB: the pinned butterflies are from an old collection donated to the Dorset Branch.

Theory session. NB: the pinned butterflies are from an old collection donated to the Dorset Branch.

Marsh Fritillary Butterfly, Barton Meadows Farm

Marsh Fritillary butterfly, Barton Meadows Farm

A female Large Skipper butterfly, Barton Meadows Farm

A female Large Skipper butterfly, Barton Meadows Farm

The evening saw me out birdringing, or should I say birdwatching! With the target species of Cuckoo and Nightjar, we had set up mist nets on the heathland of the Lulworth Ranges. We referring to Steve Hales, Luke Philips and I. One of each of the target species flew into the net, but both promptly flew out again! Very frustrating, but at least I saw both of them – and I saw / heard a number of other birds including Woodlark, Meadow Pipit and Swallows.

I'm new to wildflowers, but thought maybe a Spotted Heath orchid, Lulworth Ranges.

I’m new to wildflowers, but thought maybe a Spotted Heath orchid, Lulworth Ranges.

Therein is the end of this week’s roundup, though I will admit to missing some things out – roadside verges surveying, World Oceans Day at the Chesil Beach Centre, my personal moth trapping. But to cover everything would be too much!

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