A new job

I am pleased to confirm that I have been accepted as a voluntary trainee with the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. I have also been able to go part-time in my current role, which is great as it means I still have an income coming in whilst I learn new skills to go alongside my academic qualifications.  I start part-time hours on 1st October, and will officially start with YWT shortly after that.

On Monday I met some of my new team, and helped with a water vole survey on Thorne Moor. This was a bit different from the normal water vole surveys, which normally involve checking streams/ditches. This time we lined up and carried out a search along a transect, a bit like a police forensic hunt.

The location is a different type of habitat than that normally associated with water voles. It is a lowland peat moorland. The whole area was wet and boggy, with some ditches and pools, but mostly it was wet underneath with a mat of sphagnum on top. It was hard work, trying not to sink in the bog, and looking for the tiny signs of feeding piles and latrines. We found some good signs quite close to the edge of the area, but had large areas within the centre that yielded no results. This seems to confirm that the water voles prefer areas of open water with tussocky grass and reeds; and avoid the moss covered areas.

The purpose was to establish if water voles were present. This part of the moor has already been artificially flooded to raise the water level and re-establish the wetland.  There is another, drier section of the moor that definitely does have water voles present. We wanted to establish if flooding the drier section in a similar way would have a negative impact on the water vole population there. It looks as though there will be some impact once the moss starts to fully establish itself. There may be some funding available to create small, hilly refuges with linking ditches so there is less impact to the water voles.

It was a fairly long walk from the road to the site, and we saw numerous wild mushrooms on the walk through the wood, including the poisonous fly agaric. I have since generated quite a discussion on the Yorkshire Naturalist's facebook site, and ended up with lots of recommended reading to learn more about mushrooms!

There were also lots of insects on the moor. I managed to get a photograph of a dragonfly starting to emerge from nymph, and also an empty exuvia.

The weather was kind to us despite a forecast that was cold and wet. I felt invigorated when I got home. If this is a sign of things to come, the next year is going to be fun!