A Batty Weekend

This week has been rather manic and I've had a taste of what it's like to be an ecologist in the peak survey season.

On Friday, we had a team meeting at the East Coast along the theme of nature tourism.  After a few presentations, we had a guided bird walk along the cliffs at Flamborough.  We then made our way down to the beach at South Landing and spent some time rock pooling. It was a bit of whistle stop tour, but good to get out and mix with other trainees and staff in a relaxed setting.

The weather was fine and warm, and I was very tired by the time I got home on Friday. However, there was a bat survey organised close to my home - as most of the other outings so far have been some distance away, I thought I ought to make the effort.  I met other members of the West Yorkshire Bat Group and we spent several hours walking through Hollinghurst Wood and along the Lines Way near Great Preston/Allerton Bywater.  We heard lots of activity on the bat detectors but they were mostly pipistrelles. The woodland, where we had hoped to pick up some of the rarer species, was quite quiet.  Nevertheless, it was good to get out and practice using my detector.

On Saturday, there was a South Yorkshire Botany Group trip to Wombwell Woods near Barnsley.  It was another warm day, and I was grateful for the shade of the trees.  Due to the early Spring, many of the woodland flowers were finished, and the number of species seen was disappointing compared to other recent woodland visits I have made.  There was a large stand of japanese knotweed at the bottom of the reservoir which I dutifully reported.

On Saturday evening I joined the ARG group to visit a local nature reserve near Wakefield.  Whilst it was still light we laid out some felt for reptiles to bask on/under and searched for newt eggs.  We found eggs for both smooth/palmate and great crested newts. We then set out some bottle traps before retiring to the pub for dinner and to wait for it to get dark.

An hour of so later we returned and carried out a torch survey of the ponds.  One was very turbid, the water being stirred up by cattle, but we did see a couple of smooth newts.  The larger pond was fenced off and much clearer - there were numerous newts in the ponds, and we were optimistic for a good catch in the bottle traps.

We returned to the ponds early this morning to remove the bottle traps. We had a good count from the larger, enclosed pond - three great crested newts, a couple of palmates, and a number of smooth newts (mostly male).  The greated crested newts had DNA swabs taken as part of a wider study.  We also found palmates in a rather overgrown smaller pond in the woodland, which I think was a first record for that site. There was a mass of parrot's feather in this pond, so I made sure we all checked our footwear before leaving the area, I have just given all my kit a good scrub down and it is drying in the sun, and I have made my second invasive species report of the weekend :(

All in all, a busy but successful weekend.

Training, training, training ...

Phew, what a week. I feel more tired this week than I did when I was working full-time!

MMU UCert in Biological Recording

Last weekend I was down at the Field Centre at Preston Montford again for my first module in the MMU's Biological Recording and Species Identification certificate.  Having arrived ridiculously early the last time I went down then, I set off later ... the bank holiday traffic caught me out, and I arrived with two minutes to spare!  We had dinner as a group and then launched straight into our first evening lecture.

This was quite a full on course, running from 9am to 9pm each day and covering the basics of Biological Recording - from map reading to data flow to creating voucher specimens. On the first day, we had a quick visit to the moth trap to see what had been captured overnight - there wasn't a great deal, but we did find this lovely green carpet moth.

As part of the course, we had to carry out a mini-project that would then be written up for our first assignment. There was almost too much choice - we took a guided tour of the grounds and could literally choose anything to study ... as long as we could generate viable biological records from our field work.

Some of the other project included a study of the number of male and female red campion flowers, and the 'smut' that can be found - this is a fungus that affects the flower, and causes the females to change gender.  Another looked at native vs spanish and hybrid bluebells - talking to other students increased my understanding of this which was also helpful in our study. Spanish and hybrid bluebells have a more open flower and blue stamen (as shown).

In the end, I decided to consolidate the work I had done on Ancient Woodland Indicators the previous week. I had a lot of reference material from the CIEEM event, and wanted to make use of them. I buddied up with another student and we did a site survey of Preston Rough, to see if we could prove it was ancient woodland based on species composition. Claire's species ID was stronger than mine, and together we managed to log 68 vascular plant species. In my research I also learnt more about the process of defining Ancient Woodland and the use of historical records.  In our final presentation, we confirmed that the site was an ancient woodland, but was not officially designated as such as it is less than the requisite two hectares. Overall, it was an enjoyable project in which I continued to improve my plant ID skills and also learnt how to take voucher specimens ...and I actually enjoyed writing up the assignment.  I'm just waiting for my plant specimens to dry out before I send it in for marking.

Bee Identification

As soon as I arrived home, I was packing for my next trip. On Tuesday, I went down to Matlock in Derbyshire for a day's course in Bumblebee ID organised by the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust.  In the morning, we had a presentation on bee ecology and species identification. At this time of year, it is fairly easy to discern the different species as it is mostly the queen bees that are out foraging and they are large and easily identifiable. Later in the year, when males and workers are also abundant, some species can look very similar. After lunch, we had a wander out onto a hillside meadow and managed to catch 6 out of the 8 common species, using butterfly nets and a small container to get a closer look at the bees. This one is a garden bumblebee (Bombus hortorum) ... I think!

Newt Bottle Trapping

On Wednesday I had a very early start. The ARG group had another visit to Ilkley on Tuesday night and had set bottle traps, so on the Wednesday morning I went and helped Gordon and Tom to empty them. We had good results with all four species of newt, plus lots of frog and toad tadpoles as by-catch. My newt identification is also improving, though it is easier when they are in the traps as you get a much closer inspection. We recovered a number of male palmate newts with their distinctive tail filaments and webbed back feet (top photo).  Several alpine newts were caught and will be going on a trip to London Zoo for education and research purposes. We also found a beautiful female great crested newt in one of the top ponds - where they have not been recorded before - although none were caught in the lower pond this time.  The 'rings on her fingers' are evident in the bottom photo and you can clearly see the size different between the great crested and palmate newts (they are both in the same size bottle). Despite the 5:00am alarm call it was well worth it.

Phase 1 Habitat Surveying

At the end of the week, I went down to Newark for a two day course on Phase 1 surveying organised by CIEEM.  It was a bit surreal as it was held in someone's house, but we soon relaxed into the conservatory that formed our classroom, and the menagerie of animals made us feel welcome (cat, terrier and yellow lab that kept stealing our shoes!).  The first day was all indoors, which was a blessing as the weather was atrocious. We concentrated on plant identification, and our trainer Jane patiently taught us how to recognise the different parts of plants and work them through taxonomic keys, and brought lots of real plants from her garden and around the village to work through. I admit I found this quite difficult, and am glad I chose 'Using a Flora' as my next MMU module as I feel I need more practice to really embed this skill.

The next day we finished our identification skills by looking at grasses, then had a presentation on the survey process itself.  After lunch, we drove to a nearby nature reserve and had the chance to put our new skills into practice. We took a slow walk around the reserve as a group, then had another half an hour or so to collect further data.  Once back in the classroom, we compared notes on the number of habitats identified and ranked them in order of size - it was surprising how different everyone's interpretation of the site was!

We were given some optional 'homework' to write up the report. As Jane offered to give us feedback on this, I spent most of the next day writing up my findings and constructing a Phase 1 map. I looked at examples online and came up with what I hope is a good first attempt at a report. I did learn a lot from the experience though - make lots of notes, annotate the map really clearly with boundaries and habitat types, and take lots of photos to prompt the memory and include in target notes. Although I collected lots of data on species composition, my recollection of the extent of hedgerows etc was a little vague afterwards.

Overall, it has been a very informative if exhausting week, and now I'm trying to get back into the swing of studying.

Ancient Woodland Indicators

On Wednesday I attended another CIEEM regional event, which was looking at woodlands and particularly Ancient Woodland Indicators (AWI).

This was held at Hackfall wood just north of Grewelthorpe in North Yorkshire - an area much visited in the past. I have not been up there for several years, and was reminded what a beautiful part of the world it is.

The site is now managed by the Woodland Trust, and has a new car park, footpaths and interpretation board. There are many and varied plants, and stunning views, as well as a range of follies to explore.  This is definitely worth another visit, when I have more time to explore and photograph at my own pace.

We spent a couple of hours in the afternoon taking a slow wander through the steep, riverside woodland - much of it on well worn paths, but occasionally venturing off piste to look at particular plant species.  We considered plants that are good and bad indicators of ancient woodland, and that these can vary from county to county. We managed to locate the distinctive yet easy to miss Herb Paris, and the unusually looking Toothworth that is a parasitic plant found around the base of hazel trees.

We also discussed survey techniques, and the merits of carrying out a range of transect and quadrat surveys to best describe the woodland. We saw how the nature of the woodland can vary even over a very small area, with noticeable changes in vegetation. Some plants have clear preferences for the wetter areas alongside streams for example, or the dark northern areas that receive little light.  Point locations can also be taken to highlight particularly noteworthy plants.

It is also important to consider the factors that make woodland diverse and valuable, such as fallen wood, marshy areas, streams, etc. After a rather strenuous climb back up to the car park, we reconvened at the Crown Inn to socialise and have a bit to eat.