bioblitz
York Bioblitz
Oh my goodness, it's been months since my last post! Apologies. My excuse is that I've been tweeting instead....if you're into twitter, Chris H and I tweet via @OPALnature.
We are working hard, honest! We're looking forward to the summer and planning lots of fun activities. Probably the biggest event we're organising is the York BioBlitz in Museum Gardens on the 15th and 16th June. Now, if you've not come across a BioBlitz before, it's where naturalists, scientists, schools and members of the public come together to try and identify as many things as possible in a fixed period of time (usually 24 hours) in a defined space. Museum Gardens is a great location for this as it's publically accessible, gets lots of foot-fall, has a range of habitats (admittedly, quite a lot of that habitat is "picnic lawn"!), and is run by the fabulous York Museums Trust who will be hosting the event and bringing out some of their collections. We'll be moth trapping, bird ringing, bat watching, pitfall trapping invertebrates, bug-hunting, running fern walks, and much more. If you'd like to get involved with the event, by helping identify things, or show people around the gardens, or run bug hunts with kids, or input records of things we've found into the database, or even just make cups of tea, we'd love to have you there!
- OPAL Yorkshire and the Humber
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BioBlitzes, beetles and being by the seaside
Wow, I can't tell you how busy I've been over the past few weeks - so that's my excuse for not updating my blog for a while. I'm just starting to catch back up with things after a manic start to June. We've had two great events just a week apart... The Alexandra Palace BioBlitz on 5th June was part of a BBC Springwatch Wild Day Out in London and the Mothecombe Bioblitz was held down on the coast in Devon on 11th and 12th June.
The two events were really different to one another which made it more fun for us. The Ally Pally Bioblitz was HUGE! We had around 100 scientists and 8000 members of the public spread out across out 3 discovery zones as well as the BioBlitz base camp marquee and the wildlife fair. All were helping us to record the wildlife in the park - as much as we could find in 24 hours. The species list stands at around 700 different species now. There were some quite interesting finds too, such as a beetle called Amphotis marginata. The bioblitz was only the second time this beetle has been seen in the UK since 1969 - how amazing is that?!
The Mothecombe Bioblitz was a bit lower key and in tune with the relaxed atmosphere of south Devon! Mothecombe was the sequel to last year's Wembury BioBlitz where we found 823 species in total over 24 hours, so the bar has been set high! The photos in this post are from Mothecombe - doesn't it look gorgeous and sunny?! We were certainly blessed with the weather. We had school groups on Friday and a public open day on Saturday with loads of activities from the Big Seaweed Search to rockpooling, lichen walks and beetle hunts. The species lists are still coming in from the experts but I'm hopeful we'll beat last year's total. Keep watching this blog and I'll let you know when we have the final tally!
More photos and interesting finds to come soon once we've had a chance to sort through and pick out the best for you...
Take part in a BioBlitz this summer
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.
BioBlitzes – searching for wildlife in a race against the clock
What is a BioBlitz?
A BioBlitz is an event where scientists, naturalists and members of the public work together to find as many species as possible within a set location and over a defined time period - usually 24 hours.
Developed by American biologist Sam Droege in 1996, BioBlitzes are now held regularly in many countries and have been taking place in the UK since 2006.
OPAL’s first BioBlitz
OPAL ran its first BioBlitz in August 2009 at Wembury Bay in Devon. Around 100 scientists and naturalists, and more than 1,000 members of the public took part. We searched for life in the sea, rockpools, beach, cliffs, streams and meadows. Activities on the day included:
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- The Big Seaweed Search |
- Shark and ray egg case hunts - Strand-line survey - Plankton identification - Bug hunts |
We found 823 different types of living thing, including a species of moth that had never been recorded in Devon before.
The Wembury BioBlitz was run in partnership with the Marine Biological Association, Devon Wildlife Trust
and the National Trust.
BioBlitz reports
Read more about our previous BioBlitzes, including the interesting discoveries we made.
Upcoming BioBlitzes – we need you!
We'd like as many people as possible to get involved in OPAL BioBlitzes, so come along and join in the hunt.
If you would like to take part in any of the BioBlitzes, either as a naturalist or as a general volunteer, please email lucy [dot] carter [at] nhm [dot] ac [dot] uk.
Interested in running your own BioBlitz?
To help you run your own BioBlitz, OPAL and the Marine Biological Association have produced a free guide packed full of useful tips and guidance.
We've also compiled advice on working with the media. Further resources are coming soon, so watch this space.
Garden BioBlitz
Read what happened when OPAL scientists conducted a BioBlitz in a journalist's back garden.
OPAL on TV
Did anyone watch Museum of Life on BBC2 last night? It's a documentary about the Natural History Museum that shows all the interesting things our scientists are up to. The programme featured the Wembury Bioblitz (a 24 hour wildlife survey) organised by me, my manager John and the Marine Biological Association last summer. You can read more about it if you scroll back through my earlier blog posts. John got all the limelight but there are lots of shots of me in the background too. If you notice a young man yawning away - that's the OPAL web editor Chris (he was having a great time - honest! He didn't even stay up for the whole 24 hours with us - lazy!)
You can watch the series on BBC iPlayer. The Bioblitz was in episode 4, but OPAL was also in episode 1 in the part about the Earthworm Society of Britain. I'm in that bit talking about how I only caught six worms at the World Worm Charming Championships. What a thing to be on TV for!
We're in full swing planning for this year's bioblitzes now (two of them!), so the documentary hopefully has inspired a few people to get involved. The Alexandra Palace Bioblitz in London takes place on 5th June as part of the BBC Springwatch Wild Day Out. We're also not ones to miss an excuse to go to the beach, so we're doing another coastal bioblitz a little further east from Wembury at Mothecombe Bay on 12th June. If you're free, please come along and take part!
Wembury Bioblitz - over 800 species found!
Last weekend was Wembury Bioblitz - a 24 hour survey of every living thing we could find in Wembury Bay near Plymouth, Devon. In 24 hours we found over 800 different species of plant and animal, including some pretty unusual ones such as the Ladies’ Tresses Orchid (Spiranthes spiralis), a fish called a Giant Goby (Gobius cobitus) which is quite rare on UK shores and is only found in south-west England between Wembury and the Isles of Scilly, and a species of moth (Epermenia insecurella) which had never been seen in Devon before!
We also saw several Portuguese Man of War (Physalia physalis) - the blue bubble type thing in the photo below. Although it looks like a jellyfish, a Portuguese Man of War is actually a siphonophore which is a colony of many tiny animals. The ‘bubble’ floats on the surface of the sea, whilst long tentacles (around 10m long) dangle in the water below and can give you a really painful sting!
The Bioblitz was really good fun, with nearly 100 scientists and over 1000 members of the public all working together searching in the rockpools, on the beach and along the cliff tops to find as much as they could whilst racing against the clock. There were loads of different activities including rockpooling, looking at microscopic organisms in the sand through a microscope, investigating what was washed up on the strandline, face painting and shark egg-case hunting, as well as the night time activities of trapping small mammals and moths, and midnight rockpooling!
We also launched a brand new nation-wide survey called The Big Seaweed Search. Absolutely anyone can take part, so if you want to have a go and help out the museum scientists with their research, either reply to this post or look at www.nhm.ac.uk/seaweeds to get hold of a free identification guide and survey chart.
Thank you to everyone who came along to help out or take part - we hope you had fun! Here are a few photos of the Bioblitz to give you a taste of what we got up to, and some of the interesting things we found...
Discover marine wildlife
Join the Wembury Bioblitz and explore the diverse range of sea life along the Wembury coastline.
Learn all about marine wildlife and help us identify as many plants and animals as we can in a 24-hour period. You’ll be joined by experts from the Natural History Museum, Marine Biological Association, Devon Wildlife Trust, and a wide range of local nature groups.
The Wembury coastline is a nationally important nature conservation area and is renowned for the diversity of its marine life. Enjoy guided ‘explorations’ along this coastline and be the first to take part in the Big Seaweed Search – a new national survey that launches at this event.
All activities are free, although car-parking charges may apply. For more information, visit www.marlin.ac.uk/bioblitz.
Dates and times
The Wembury Bioblitz runs from midday on Friday 21 August 2009 to midday on Saturday 22 August 2009.
Members of the public can join in on Friday between 12.00 and 19.30 and on Saturday from 10.00 to 12.00.
Admission
Free.
Location
Wembury Marine Centre, Plymouth
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CREST science awards for primary and secondary schools
CREST is a nationally recognised award programme for science project work. Designed by the British Science Association, they are open to children aged 5 - 19 years.
Learn more about CREST and how to take part on the British Science Association website.
Discover Classification - free teacher resource pack
The OPAL team at the Natural History Museum has developed a free resource pack to support the teaching of biological classification in secondary schools.
Aimed at Key Stage 3, the resource pack includes a series of three lessons on classifying species, two extension lessons and supporting PowerPoint presentations. The pack also serves as useful revision for Key Stage 4.
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Create a home for bees and join the OPAL West Midlands bee hotel project.
By placing a bee hotel in your garden you'll help support a number of important bee species. You can also help the OPAL West Midland team develop a photographic guide for the bees that use the hotel.
Join in our BioBlitzes, or get help with running your own
BioBlitzes are an exciting race against the clock where scientists and members of the public work together to find as many species as possible. Not only are they great fun, but they also collect useful scientific data.
See our BioBlitz page for information on upcoming BioBlitzes that you can get involved in, and read about OPAL's very first BioBlitz in Wembury.
We've also produced a guide for those of you interested in running your own BioBlitz.
Free Darwin Guide
Learn to explore and record wildlife just like Charles Darwin. Co-authored by Darwin's great-great-grandson, The Darwin Guide has been produced by the National Biodiversity Network (NBN) to inspire people of all ages to record and enjoy nature.
It's completely free and can be downloaded or ordered from the NBN website.
Join the Earthworm Society of Britain
Get to know more about earthworms with the help of experts, take part in field trips to improve your identification skills and help scientists with ongoing research.
The Earthworm Society of Britain has been created to give everyone the chance to learn more about these fascinating creatures.
Watch Nature Live events
Nature Live events give you the chance to meet experts and learn all about the natural world. They are hosted and run by the Natural History Museum.
We have arranged a number of Nature Live OPAL specials and they are all available to watch again here. See the videos from our recent bat weekend and learn more about these incredible animals.
Join a local nature group
Fancy getting more involved in nature? Want to help the environment and meet like-minded people?
Joining a nature society or wildlife recording group is a great way to learn more about your local wildlife, improve your identification skills and help the environment. Activities can range from wildlife recording to practical conservation tasks.
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Taking part is quick and simple, and there's a free identification guide on the Museum site to help you.
Get chatting in the bug forum
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Join the Natural History Museum’s bug forum and you can upload photos of a bug you’ve spotted and the Museum’s scientists will help you identify it. You can also ask all your bug-related questions. Insects, spiders, centipedes and any other creepy crawlies you find are all welcome.