ACV Bioblitz at Llanerchaeron 31/03/12

An early start, even by ACV standards, awaited all that signed up to go on a special one off outing on Saturday 31^st March. Our destination was the National Trust Llanerchaeron site near Aberaeron, our task was to assist in their Bioblitz.

Bioblitz’s are an initiative set up by the Bristol Natural History Consortium and are run worldwide with the aim of encouraging  people to get in touch with wildlife by aiding scientists to identify as many species as possible in an area in a 24 hour period.

Off on the bird walk (Photo S. James)

We arrived and promptly set off on a walk around the woods looking but more so listening for birds.  We had an excellent set of guides, all of whom were local naturalists and many of them are county record keepers. After an hour or so we started to head back to the house and gardens for a cup of tea and a talk about the aims of the day from the site warden.

Listening to bird calls (Photo E. Bell)

After splitting into smaller groups we went off with the various guides and got to focus on an area of interest.  There was moth ID and meadow plant ID before lunch.  Then after lunch there was pond dipping, invertebrate hunting in rotten logs up in the woods and then woodland and field edge plant ID. 

Purple Thorn (Photo E. Bell)

People were welcome to move around and encouraged to share any knowledge they had on a subject but most of us found it an amazing learning opportunity as the guides all have a wealth of wisdom on species and especially their uses when it comes to plants that can only be acquired after years of being out and about in the woods and countryside.

Wood Anenome  (Photo S. James)

It was a fantastic day that everyone thoroughly enjoyed.  We would like to thank all the guides for their patience and sharing their knowledge with us, seeing as they were there as volunteers as well.  A big thanks to our secretary Alex Dodds for organising this as an extra event and finally to Gwen, the site warden at Llanerchaeron, for inviting us down!

Newt (Photo E. Bell)

If you would like to find out more about Bioblitz’s and see if there is one in your area check out the Bioblitz website http://www.bnhc.org.uk/home/bioblitz/

Also for any one that fancies visiting the site at Llanerchaeron information can be found here http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/llanerchaeron/

Ladybirds in the meadow (Photo E. Bell)