Posts Tagged ‘Surveys’
A Fantastic Fungi: new species to science
During the autumn of 2018 I was part of an ongoing survey of the larger fungi to be found in various areas surrounding Heathrow airport. Adam Cheeseman, who heads up an onsite biodiversity team, told me that whilst he’d previously seen lots of fungi fruiting they hadn’t since a formal survey began in 2015. However, there was finally lots of fungi again. I promptly made my way over to Heathrow…
Read MoreJoy of Recording: fourteen years of data
My desire for identifying wildlife started at a very young age, sometime between five and seven, when it was usual for me to be found crawling under school huts. A lot of my childhood was spent crawling around looking at invertebrates in my local park in Luton, Bedfordshire where I grew up. However…
Read MoreJoy of Recording
The importance of wildlife recording first dawned on me in my late teens. During the early 1980s, I volunteered, at a Shropshire site called Stoneyhill, to look for three species of clubmoss ferns. Remarkably, they included alpine clubmoss – a species not recorded in the county since 1726. Being exceptional county rarities, their discovery …
Read MoreShow & Tell: Goose Count Maps
The Living Wandle Landscape Partnership Scheme has been monitoring Canada goose populations in the Wandle Valley to gain a greater understanding of their numbers and possible effects. With help from volunteers, the partnership have been conducting annual goose counts. For the last two years …
Read MoreMigration over London
Most people don’t look to the sky over London for migrating birds. I never used to. Until, way back in the early 1990s, I was waiting at a bus stop on Tottenham High Road. I looked up and noticed a smoky, long line of wood pigeons. I counted over four hundred before …
Read MoreJoy of Recording
Collecting and submitting records provides a focus for my wildlife outings. That being said, I try to remember that looking for wildlife is not simply about numbers. For me, it may have been initially, but it certainly is not now. It’s also about having fun. …
Read MoreShow & Tell: Stag Beetle Forms
For several years now, one of our most reliable signs of spring at GiGL has been the trickle of stag beetle records sent via our website. The first records in March and April herald the upcoming busy season of stag beetle spotting …
Read MoreHere Be Dragons
Froglife is a UK wildlife charity committed to the conservation of amphibians and reptiles. Their ‘Dragon Finder’ app was developed and launched as part of the London Dragon Finder project, an ambitious city wide amphibian and reptile conservation project that included practical habitat restoration work, and educational outreach activities.
Read MoreA different perspective
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment popularised the concept of ‘ecosystem services’; making sure nature is considered in decision-making by measuring and accounting for the benefits it provides to human wellbeing. The value of some services such as pollination of agricultural crops can be measured, however not all services are so easily quantified.
Read MoreThe i-Tree Eco Survey
This year, over three hundred volunteers from all walks of life, professionals and ordinary members of the public, came together to undertake the largest urban tree and woodland survey of its kind in the world; the RELEAF London i-Tree Eco survey. After being postponed because of the Olympics in 2012 and logistical issues in 2013, we have now succeeded …
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