Diario del proyecto National Parks UK LookWild

20 de septiembre de 2021

European BioBiltz - 24th-25th Sept

This weekend there is a 48 hour European BioBlitz taking place. It would be great to get lots of records inside our UK National Parks but if you can't get to one, don't worry. You can take park wherever you are using iNaturalist.

See below for more details

European BioBlitz is coming soon!! Get involved to help your local wildlife 🌳 🦆 🐞
On Fri 24 and Sat 25 Sept, school groups, citizens, researchers, and wildlife enthusiasts across the continent will be taking part in this race against the clock to put nature on the map, submitting photos and observations of wildlife in their neighbourhoods through the free, easy to use iNaturalist mobile phone app.
By observing local nature, everyone can support vital conservation research whilst connecting with nature and enjoying the outdoors.
Whether you are an expert, a seasoned #BioBlitz participant or getting involved for the first time, it couldn’t be easier to join in.
Simply download the iNaturalist app, take a photograph of nature in your local area - whether that’s a tree, plant or insect or animal - and upload. You don’t even have to know anything about the species you are observing. Teams of experts will be reviewing and updating the information that’s submitted, so you can log back in later and learn more about what you’ve spotted. Find out more here: https://ernintersections.org/bioblitz/
EuroBioBlitz2021
ERN_intersections
ERN2021
GreatBigGreenWeek

Publicado el septiembre 20, 2021 12:06 TARDE por patrickwm patrickwm | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

26 de julio de 2021

July: The Hay Meadow Story – Northumberland National Park

Hello and welcome to the first of what will be regular updates from Look Wild, an initiative that brings all 15 UK National Parks together to encourage more people to get up close with nature and “look wild”. We’re off to a good start with nearly 450 people joining the Look Wild project on the iNaturalist app and around two thirds of people contributing observations. If you’ve joined the project but not yet made an observation, there’s no time like the present to get outside and start recording nature - you can find out how to do this with step-by-step instructions on: https://www.nationalparks.uk/look-wild/

In our first regular journal post we’re heading to Northumberland National Park, the least populated and most tranquil National Park in England. Northumberland is an International Dark Sky Park with truly dark night skies and is home to the iconic and world-famous central section of Hadrian’s Wall.

The Hay Meadow Story – Northumberland National Park

Hello from Northumberland. Here we are in late July basking in glorious sunshine and the farmers are literally “making hay whilst the sun shines”. With weather like this it’s easy to forget how cold and wet (late) the spring was this year. When Spring finally sprang nature caught up and everything started growing to make up for lost time. I’ve spent June and July using iNaturalist to help me improve my wildflower ID skills and to record the variety of flowers in a couple of my favourite local wild places – a wide road verge and scrubby field near home. You don’t have to be in a flower-rich hay meadow to spot lots of interesting wildflowers.

One thing I’ve noticed is that the poor spring weather seems to have impacted on the number of bees, butterflies, and other pollinating insects that I’m (not) seeing… which makes sense if their food sources were late. Flowering plants and pollinators are interdependent, each needing the other, and pollinators are critical in providing food sources for other wildlife and for people. Annually in the UK, pollinators are responsible for £690 million worth of crops (or every third mouthful we eat). If for no other reason than self-interest we should look after bees and other pollinating insects and the flower rich habitats they rely on, which brings me back to those flower-rich hay meadows that are currently being cut. This time-lapse video tells “the haymeadow story” of a species-rich meadow in Northumberland National Park:

Video link to watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGZrAiMiTok

Here at Northumberland National Park we’ve been working with farmers over the last decade to protect the remaining fragments of truly species-rich meadow. Encouraging farmers to cut hay late to allow flowers to grow and set seed and removing inorganic fertilisers which promote grass growth. We have worked with farmers to collect and spread seed from species-rich fields to restore degraded meadows to increase the number and variety of flowers. Each year we survey meadows to monitor the habitat and we also survey for pollinators.

Volunteer and Look Wild member Ian Cole had this to say about his pollinator surveying experience: “It was fascinating to see just how variable the plant make-up of hay meadows can be and how this, in turn, affects the number of pollinator species which are found in specific habitats. With Ranger Shaun Hackett’s help, I could see from the behaviour of some bees that they were moss carder bees (Bombus muscorum), visiting one or two flowers and then flying off. I learned to distinguish between several types of bumblebee by how they fed, as well as by their shape and colouration.”

You can read more about Ian's Pollinator Placement and see some of his amazing macro-photos of pollinators on: https://www.northumberlandnationalpark.org.uk/pollinator-placement/

And, you can find out more about our project to provide early (spring) nectar sources for pollinators on: https://www.northumberlandnationalpark.org.uk/willows-for-wildlife-starting-to-pay-off/

So, whilst there are still plenty of wildflowers in the verges and hedgerows this summer I’d encourage everyone to get out recording and to keep your eyes open for those all important bees and pollinating insects whilst you’re at it.

By Dave Richardson, Volunteer Development Officer, Northumberland National Park

Publicado el julio 26, 2021 01:22 TARDE por callofthecurlew callofthecurlew | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

10 de febrero de 2021

National Parks UK WildWatch

Hello and Welcome to our first journal article about the National Parks UK WildWatch project.

The project is not officially launched to the public yet (we are planning on a spring launch), but we gave our volunteers a sneak peek into how we are doing things last week. See below for the video of the meeting. We’ve edited out most of our technical errors….

For the time being we have increased our boundary to include the whole of the UK not just National Parks. This means people can take part from home without traveling during lockdown. We’ll assess this as it goes along and we may change again in the future. Obviously we are particularly interested in observations inside the National Parks but for now we’ll be looking at observations throughout the UK from Project members. So please join the project if you want to take part.

If you would like to concentrate on a single park you can use the filter function to pick out your area of interest. If you want to see all national park data use the link at the bottom of this page.

video link to view in YouTube https://youtu.be/RwLR-feLMOk

This link below will give you all UK national park observations even if they are not part of the project.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=56721,%2056707,%2056712,%20162899,%20162900,%20163159,%2056720,%20163056,%2081743,%20163216,%20163215,%20163214,%20163282,%20163276,%20163277

Feel free to use the comments below if you have any questions.

Publicado el febrero 10, 2021 02:06 TARDE por patrickwm patrickwm | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

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