Tag Archives: biological recording centre

Bioblitzing at Porthkerry Country Park

06 Thursday Oct 2016

Posted by in nature, parks

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As I volunteer on the Mary Gillham Archive Project, which is hosted by SEWBReC (the South East Wales Biodiversity Records Centre), I got invited along to SEWBReC’s staff outing yesterday. And what do records centre staff do for a staff outing? Why we go looking for more biodiversity records, of course! I was in my element, and it was so nice being with like-minded people who also spend a lot of time standing and staring at bushes and trees, and can take an hour to progress a hundred metres. For once, I wasn’t the ‘strange’ one!
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We spent the morning by the seaside at Porthkerry Country Park, on the south Wales coast near Barry, a first visit for me to this beautiful place, which ‘contains 220 acres of woodland and meadows in a sheltered valley that leads to a pebble beach and spectacular cliffs’. We barely scratched the surface, so I will certainly be heading back to explore further. Our list of species found currently stands at 93 but we have a few more to check so I feel sure we’ll push our total over the 100 mark before we’re finished. The sun shone on the recording team at Porthkerry!

Bioblitzing Cwm Saerbren

27 Saturday Aug 2016

Posted by in birds, fungi, insects, nature, plants, wildflowers

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Each summer my local biological records centre, SEWBReC, runs a series of biological recording field days, partly to introduce members of the public to the world of biological recording, allowing them to rub shoulders with wildlife experts and learn species identification skills, and partly to record the biodiversity of particular areas. Last Thursday I went along to the field day-come-bioblitz at the Cwm Saerbren Woodland, adjacent to the small town of Treherbert at the top of the Rhondda Fawr Valley.

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This assumed unicorn was the star of the show!

Though the turnout from the locals was disappointing (not a single person!) and despite the sometimes heavy rain (a common feature up the Valleys), we had a great day. With the SEWBReC crew, a couple of guys from Natural Resources Wales, and a few of us volunteers from the Mary Gillham Archives Project, we stomped around the trails of Cwm Saerbren, recording all we saw. And, after meeting up back at the town to identify and write up our afternoon list and then filling up on hot chips from the local takeaway shop, we also got out with the bat recorder and had moth-attracting lights running to see what flying critters we might find. All up, once everything is IDed, I reckon our list will be well over 200 species. Not bad for a day’s work!

Long live Biological Diversity!

21 Saturday May 2016

Posted by in flowers, fungi, insects, nature, plants, wildflowers

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Tomorrow it will be 24 years since the Convention on Biological Diversity was adopted by the United Nations. To commemorate that momentous day back in 1992, 22 May is now celebrated as the International Day for Biological Diversity. Around the world, events of various kinds – from seminars, exhibitions and leaflets to more hands-on programmes of tree-planting – are organised to promote awareness of the importance of biodiversity, to spread the word that a high variety of plant and animal life is crucial in all habitats.

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For my personal celebration, I visited a local nature reserve to see what species of plants, animals, insects, molluscs, etc I could find. And what a treasure trove there was waiting to be discovered! I’ve included some photos here to show you how diverse the area is but I haven’t yet identified everything I saw. I am slowly working my way through my 400 photos. And, as it’s extremely important to record what can be found around us, as a responsible Citizen Scientist, I will also be entering my records into the database of the local biological records centre.

So, here’s a challenge for you. Head out tomorrow, 22 May, and see what you can find in your local park, nature reserve, or even your own garden … and don’t forget to record what you see.

Recording the biology around us

16 Tuesday Feb 2016

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Yesterday I went on a free training course, ‘An introduction to biological recording’, run by the friendly and extremely knowledgeable folk at SEWBReC, the South East Wales Biodiversity Records Centre. The course was intended to introduce the participants to:

The basics of biological recording: what we need to record and why; and
How to turn wildlife sightings into biological records which will be used to protect, conserve and enhance the local environment.

I’m sold on the idea! I had already signed on to their system to record a couple of unusual things I had seen but, of course, we shouldn’t just record the unusual, we should record everything – or, at least, as much as we possibly can of what we can positively identify.

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Searching for specimens to practise recording

As course instructor and SEWBReC manager Adam Rowe explained, we won’t know if something previously thought of as plentiful is in danger unless we record it and thereby, over time, notice a decline in its numbers. He gave as an example the American Passenger pigeon which once numbered between 3 and 5 billion – yes, billion! – but became extinct upon the death of the last surviving bird, ‘Martha’, in 1914.

There are biological recording centres in most countries around the world these days so, if you enjoy the natural world around you, please consider doing your bit as a citizen scientist.