Posts Tagged ‘Volunteering’
Joy of Recording
…I returned to the UK in 2011, moving into a house boat on a wharf at the junction of the rivers Brent and Thames. One day, while working on a small patch of garden on the wharf’s bank, I noticed a tiny little snail that I hadn’t previously encountered; after making enquiries around the neighbourhood, my landlord told me it was a Thames two-lipped snail (Balea biplicata)…
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 MoreVerification: We Need Your Help
Are you enthralled by Ephemeroptera? Can you tell a Baetis rhodani from a Cloeon dipterum? Do you find fungi fascinating or think slime mould is sensational? If so, then you may be just the person we are looking for.
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 MoreWater for Wildlife
The Freshwater Habitats Trust is a national organisation dedicated to protecting all freshwater life. Our largest current project, the Heritage Lottery funded “People, Ponds and Water” has been running since 2015. We are helping volunteers to take an active part …
Read MoreLiving History
In 2011, I wrote about my involvement with the ornithology records of the London Natural History Society, noting that I had first crossed their path some twenty years before that. Five years on, the nature of the project has changed, but much of the original challenge remains. I had seen my role, offering services to GiGL to process some old data, as not too demanding. However, when space in the Union …
Read MoreJoy of Recording
When I was a kid and teenager, I spent a lot of time looking for fossils, fungi and berries. It didn’t occur to me at the time to try and put a label on everything, beyond whether it was useful or edible. It was much later that I became interested in identifying what I saw around me and then in counting it and recording it. When I moved to London I was fascinated by the quantity and variety of wildlife I discovered in an urban environment.
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 MoreBalance of Data
Armed with only a passion for numbers and a particular interest in wildlife statistics, I arrived at GiGL for my week’s work experience not entirely sure what I would be expected to do.
After settling in, I was presented with the number of records for three London boroughs.
Read MoreDiary of an Open Space Volunteer
London has some wonderful open spaces and some dreadful ones. It has been my one-day-a week job for the last six months to visit them all and check the features GiGL knows to exist. When the weather has been fine, I have jumped on a train, with my rucksack full of papers, to mostly unheard of destinations.
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