A short illustrated article in the Bristol Post about the Bioblitz event over the weekend.
BioBlitz makes the news
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Monthly Archives: May 2013
Findings
Today, I managed a little time away from base camp where I was mostly on “site” duty to accompany a walk to find spiders. I took my camera with me and here are a few pictures of what I saw on the walk (clue: not all of them are spiders).
Rain, rain go away
Rain definitely did not stop play today. We were a little damp this morning but this seemed to encourage more invertebrates to brave the open air.
Eventually, the sun took over and we had a glorious afternoon.
We had walks…
Spider catching…
…and some new young stars in front of the cameras
If you didn’t make it to the BioBlitz, why not try one of the “Bristol 99” events – there’s probably one near you in the next couple of weeks.
It’s all happening at BioBlitz headquarters
The field lab at Kings Weston House is abuzz with naturalists identifying and verifying the species discoveries from around the site. As well as microscopes to help identify grasses via their minute differences, there is also a range of kit for people to come and borrow.
If you have an unidentified species, or need some help with ID, pop into the field lab!
Flowers at Kings Weston House
The sun is out and the flowers are enjoying the opportunity to attract some insect pollinators. Check out these beauties that we’ve found at Kings Weston House during BioBlitz 2013.
What flowers have you spotted?
What’s on today at BioBlitz 2013
If you fancy a foray into the world of BioBlitzing, take a look at what’s on today. You can hunt down creepy crawlies and, if you’re feeling brave, get up close and personal with spiders! Or play it safe and enjoy one of our guided mammal and woodland walks. We’ve also got naturalists on hand to answer your questions.
And if you feel like exploring under your own steam, come and borrow some equipment from our field lab and see what you can find!
Schools event
Phew!
What a day! Kings Weston was teeming with enthusiastic students today as part of our schools day.
We had a variety of activities – such as bird ringing, pond-dipping, invertebrate hunts, looking for badger setts and investigating a wildflower meadow.
Everyone had a great time and by the time the students left we had identified at least 160 species of flora and fauna.
Big thanks to all school groups for really throwing themselves into the day.
This evening naturalists will be prowling around to see what else they can find – I can’t wait to find out the results of the bat and moth walks.
Invertebrate trail at BioBlitz 2013
Wildscreen Media Team member Kathryn joins Tony the naturalist as he takes a group of budding entomologists on an invertebrate discovery mission.
Watch the video here.
Welcome to BioBlitz 2013
The Wildscreen Media Team are at Kings Weston House on this fantastically sunny Bristol day to capture action as it happens. We’ll be photographing plants, filming anything that flies and blogging about mini-beasts! So stay tuned as we tally the species throughout the day.
First off, Wildscreen pond dippers extraordinaire Becky, Claire and Helen jumped at the chance to join the pond-dipping expedition this morning. Accompanying naturalist Trudi, the intrepid trio joined the children of Christ Church CE Primary School to delve into the murky waters of the nearby pond.
The resulting net-fulls of green pond weed soon revealed a fantastic ecosystem of critters galore! Freshwater hoglice scrambled around elegantly stretching leeches, whilst a diving beetle made a bid for freedom past some enormous pond snails. And there was even the bonus find of some tadpoles!
Back at BioBlitz headquarters, the Media Team are now awaiting the return of the first wave of foragers and for the tally of species to begin!
All coming together
So today a merry band of us convened at Kings Weston House and spent tiring, but satisfying day, preparing for tomorrow’s event.
The picture above shows how one corner of the main room looked when we’d dumped all our stuff in it.
About seven hours later we were pretty much ready for our visitors.
Hard work, but a really satisfying day. Can’t wait for the main event.