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!

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!