OPAL News

Join in our latest national survey and discover the incredible diversity of life that hedges support.

The importance of hedges for wildlife is often overlooked. Many invertebrates, small mammals and birds rely heavily on them for food and shelter. In fact 10 of the 18 most threatened British mammals feed on fruits and berries that grow in hedges.

By taking part in the biodiversity survey, you’ll discover how important your local hedge is for wildlife, and learn ways to improve it. Your results will also help our scientists with valuable national research.

It’s easy to take part and great fun too. Just download one of our free survey packs, which include full instructions and a handy guide to identify invertebrates.

Don’t forget to submit your results online to get a full evaluation of your hedge so you can compare with others in our results section. You'll also be entered into our monthly prize draw if you wish.

Are you helping to conserve biodiversity with your school or group? Make a short film about it and you could win £500, free books, and a VIP trip to the Natural History Museum.

The Young Darwin Prize is a competition to find the best videos that describe a conservation project. Perhaps you are planting trees in your school grounds or working with a group to help clean your local lake. Whatever it is, by making a short film about the good work you do, you’ll be in with a chance of winning.

There are two entry categories; 7-11 years old (Key Stage 2 or equivalent), and 11-14 years old (Key Stage 3 or equivalent). Your video should be no longer than two and a half minutes, and you can submit your entry online.

For further information and guidance see the International Year of Biodiversity (IYB) website.

Take part in the OPAL biodiversity survey
Discover the importance of hedges for wildlife and help scientists with valuable research.

Caitlin Eastes, aged 11, from Little Ridge Community Primary School, has won our water competition run in partnership with National Geographic Kids magazine.

More than 200 children entered the competition, which asked for creative ways to improve life for pond animals.

Caitlin impressed the judges by designing a model of her perfect pond. Features included a bubble tub for water spiders, a picnic area and even a pond critter zip wire.

For her prize, Caitlin and her entire class enjoyed a VIP trip to the Natural History Museum in London. The class was also awarded £1,000 to spend on their school grounds.

Teacher Lee Drinkwater said, 'We’re all very proud of Caitlin and delighted that she has won this brilliant prize for the school. Coming to the Natural History Museum is always a fantastic experience, even for the kids that have been before. The money that Caitlin has won will help to make our gardens and playground an even more enjoyable place to spend time, and we can’t wait to put it to good use.'

OPAL and National Geographic Kids magazine are launching a new competition soon to support the upcoming biodiversity survey. Keep an eye on the Kids Zone for more details.

Katy Barnard is the OPAL community scientist for the North East region. Based at Newcastle University, she works with groups and individuals of all ages, inspiring them to get more involved with nature.

What’s the most enjoyable part of working on the OPAL project?
One of my favourite things about OPAL is that one day I might be working with five-year-olds, and the next with a group of retired people - it’s a real mixture. But the best thing is seeing what people get out of it. It’s so rewarding to hear all the positive comments after an event and to know they've learnt something new.

What kind of things are you up to in the North East?
We’re really lucky to have access to Moorbank Botanical Garden, an amazing garden that features all sorts of fascinating plants not normally found in this area - or even in this country.

We have a tropical greenhouse, a desert house and even a good selection of carnivorous plants. The garden is not normally open to the public, so I’ve been running regular open days to give local people an opportunity to explore the many different plants we have here.

I’ve also designed lots of activities that people can take away with them to do at home or in the garden, to help them continue their interest.

What’s the most interesting thing anyone has discovered at one of your events?
Although we haven’t found anything out of the ordinary, people are discovering things they didn’t know about nature all the time at our events.

When we launched the OPAL air survey, I designed a ‘What’s in the box?’ game where I gave people clues and they had to guess what was in there. The clues included things like, ‘It can live for 1,000 years’ and ‘It can survive totally unprotected in space’, so needless to say we had some pretty outlandish suggestions.

People were amazed when I eventually revealed the lichen within, and even more surprised to learn that they are actually all around us.

Do you have a favourite animal?
I absolutely love elephants. A few years ago I worked at an elephant sanctuary in Thailand that looked after animals that had been used to entertain tourists. My favourite was a quiet, wrinkly old female called Pai Lin. She’d lived a long and difficult life so it was nice to see her relaxed and happy in her old age.

You can contact Katy by emailing k [dot] barnard [at] newcastle [dot] ac [dot] uk.

Where are the healthiest lakes? Does water clarity affect what invertebrates you might find? Which pollutants have the biggest impact on aquatic life?

You can now explore these and many more questions with the new interactive maps and graphs in our water survey results section.

We have already received results for more than 2,000 water surveys. Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far.

Please keep taking part and sending in your results - the more surveys submitted, the more valuable our research becomes.
 

Create your own graph to explore how factors such as the pH and pollutants recorded at a site affect the numbers of invertebrates living in the water.
 

Where have the clearest waters been found?
 

The water survey gave every pond or lake an instant health score. Where are the ponds with the best scores?
 

Are some invertebrates more common in certain areas?
 

See all the pictures you’ve sent us so far.

Submit your water survey results and win a set of identification guides
We're giving away a set of ten identification guides every month. Just enter your results online to be in with a chance of winning.

See the very best water wildlife photos
The Guardian newspaper have selected their favourite contributions to the water survey Flickr album.

A group of pupils from Osbaston Primary School in Monmouth have won £1,000 for their school and a special VIP trip to the Natural History Museum in London.

The children entered a competition run by OPAL in partnership with National Geographic Kids magazine.

Entrants were asked to come up with imaginative ways they could improve their school grounds for wildlife.

More than 200 entries were received, with the ideas expressed in everything from poetry to drawings.

The winning entry included practical suggestions such as flowerbeds and wormeries, combined with more elaborate constructions such as mini-beast mansions.

After being presented with the prize money, the children were treated to free entry to The Deep exhibition and got to handle some of the Museum’s specimens in the Investigate Centre.

Teacher Sian Vaughan Williams said, 'The children were extremely excited when they found out that their entry was picked as the winner. This is the first time many of them have been to the Natural History Museum so it really is a treat. We are looking forward to using the money to bring some of their ideas for the playground to life!'.

Learn to identify local wildlife with the many guides and keys now available on the OPAL site.

From trees and duckweeds to damselflies and amphibians, the new identification section on the OPAL website offers a growing collection of resources to help aspiring biologists of all ages put a name to local wildlife.

Many of the identification guides have been produced by OPAL for our popular national surveys. Covering common plants and animals from lichens to earthworms, the easy-to-follow guides all have clear photo examples.

As well as the survey guides, you’ll also find links to other useful identification resources such as the Natural History Museum’s bug gallery and forums.

New identification guides will be added over the coming weeks and months, so be sure to check back regularly.

Interested in improving your identification skills?
OPAL organises free beginner courses in identifying common birds, moths, plants, insects and other wildlife.

All upcoming courses are listed on our events calendar. We hope to see you on one soon.

Baskerville School in Birmingham and Nottingham High School for Girls have shared an award from the British Lichen Society to help with their lichen research.

After taking part in the OPAL air survey, both schools became interested in investigating the effects of air pollution on lichens. The Tom Chester award from the British Lichen Society supports the study of lichens with grants of up to £250.

Baskerville School is for autistic students of all ages. It is aiming to explore the relationship between lichen cover and the position of trees, based on the many apple trees in the school grounds. A grant of £200 has helped to pay for a digital camera to record the twigs and lichens.

Nottingham High School for Girls is organising a number of related projects involving 32 of its Year 10 students. Mentored by OPAL community scientist Amy Rogers, the students will investigate lichen sensitivity to nitrogen pollutants from individual sources such as pig farms and power stations. They will also compare samples along a line from inner-city Nottingham to rural Nottinghamshire.

The award has helped the school to buy two flat head pH meters and a digital camera to support their work.

OPAL researchers at the University of York are asking East Hull residents to help monitor the numbers of one of the UK’s most distinctive animals.

Rural hedgehog populations have declined in recent years due to habitat loss and changes in farming. OPAL scientists want to find out how many hedgehogs are now taking refuge in urban green spaces such as gardens and parks.

As part of the study, coloured tags will be attached to the spines of hedgehogs in the Marfleet, Greatfield and Kingswood areas of Hull. The tags are harmless to the hedgehogs, and will fall off within a few months.

OPAL researcher Sal Hobbs explains, 'We need residents to spot hedgehogs and to tell us the colour of the tag, the letters printed on it and the exact location of the animal. This information will help us to plot a map of where the different hedgehogs are going, how far they travel, and which gardens they choose to visit.

'The information that the community helps us gather will be extremely valuable in devising conservation measures for this wonderful species.'

The hedgehog study has been organised by scientists at the Environment Department and the Stockholm Environment Institute at the University of York.

Join scientists in an exciting race against the clock to find as many species as possible in 24 hours.

Known as a BioBlitz, this kind of timed wildlife hunt is a fantastic way to discover more about local wildlife and contribute to valuable scientific research at the same time.

Want to get involved? OPAL is running two BioBlitzes that you can join in this June. All ages and abilities are welcome and you can devote as little or as much time as you wish.

Our first BioBlitz will be at Alexandra Palace in London on 5 June, and the second will be in Mothecombe, Devon on 11 June. The BBC will be filming the Alexandra Palace event.

Find out about our last BioBlitz
We found more than 800 species at our Wembury BioBlitz, including a surprising number of invasive species and a moth that was completely new to the area.

Garden BioBlitz
Read what happened when OPAL scientists conducted a BioBlitz in a journalist's back garden.