Brown Hairstreak egg survey session-Coming Soon Nov/Dec 2020!

Declining nationally, Devon is a major British stronghold for this elusive butterfly: it remains fairly well distributed across the county.  A species of hedges, scrub and woodland edge, the eggs are laid on the young growth of blackthorn, the foodplant of the caterpillars. The main reason for its decline is believed to be the tight annual flailing of hedgerows which destroys the eggs. Many hedges remain unfavourably managed for the butterfly in Devon,although agri-environment schemes like Countryside Stewardship have helped reduce the frequency of trimming. Reflecting its elusive nature as an adult, the species is under recorded and more effort is required to determine its status across Devon.

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Monitor your local river with the Westcountry Rivers Trust.

The West Country Rivers Trust is looking for citizen scientists to help to record their local river or streams for both good things (wildlife sightings) and bad (pollution, litter and invasive plants). Let WRT know you’re interested : wrt.org.uk/project/become-a-citizen-scientist and they will send you a link to where you can record your survey results. They also have some useful ID sheets.

BACK FROM THE BRINK NEST QUEST

Nest Quest (a component of the BftB Narrow- headed Ant project) is a public participation wildlife survey looking for wood ant nests in Devon. Everyone can take part in the survey while visiting woods, heaths and moors, by recording nest sightings through the Buglife webpage.

Wood ants perform an important role in the woodland ecosystem recycling nutrients and maintaining habitats; their distinctive nests, often covered with pine needles, are marvels of design and can be home to hundreds of other species as well as the ant colony itself.Watching the busy ant city at work can be fascinating. However, they have declined in range in recent years and Buglife aims to gain a better understanding of their current status in Devon through Nest Quest records.

‍Bee Walks

During the summer join the Bumblebee Conservation Trust training days to find out how you can become a BeeWalk recorder. BeeWalk is a standardised bumblebee-monitoring scheme which involves volunteer ‘BeeWalkers’ walking the same fixed route (transect) once a month between March and October, counting the bumblebees seen and identifying them to species and caste (queen, worker, male) where possible. WestCountry Buzz is calling for BeeWalkers to help survey and monitor the nationally declining Brown-banded (Bombus humilis) and Moss carder (Bombus muscorum) bees on the north Devon coast. This is the last remaining area in the county for these two species. They were once found widely across Devon, but sadly they are now mostly confined to the coast.

More information at https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/west-country-buzz/ and their will be training dates throughout the summer for those interested.

Big Butterfly Count 2020-27th July-9th August

Visit the website: https://www.bigbutterflycount.org/ to download their handy butterfly ID chart. Sign up and submit your sighting!

At other times of the year you can also gather casual records and individual sightings through the i-Record portal: http://www.butterflyrecording.org/

To find out about the your local Devon group visit: https://butterfly-conservation.org/in-your-area/devon-branch

Butterfly Identification Guides

Devon Greater Horseshoe Bat Project:

From April-October, you can borrow an SM4 bat detector for 4days from 20 Monitoring Centres across Devon (in North Devon they are located in Barnstaple, Great Torrington, South Molton, Ilfracombe and Okehampton).  http://devonbatproject.org/devon-bat-survey/

Exmoor National Park -WildWatch

For anyone who loves exmoor, wherever you are.

Exmoor Wildwatch is a project to get as many people as possible involved in learning about, exploring, protecting and recording the wonderful wildlife of Exmoor.  The more information we have about the plants and animals that live here, the better we can work together to look after them.

Every year we highlight some species that we are particularly keen on getting more information on, In 2020 these include a range of non-native invasive species, as well as a range of native Exmoor species including brown hare and waxcap fungi.

https://www.exmoor-nationalpark.gov.uk/Whats-Special/exmoor-wildwatch

 Record Invasive Species for Devon Biodiversity Records Centre

Use Devon Invasive Species Initiative ID Sheets  to identify invasive species in your area and submit your records directly on the Devon Biodiversity Records Centre site https://www.dbrc.org.uk/wildlife-sightings/

Alternatively you can use apps such as iSpot and iRecord

Nature's Calendar

What effect has recent weather had on wildlife? Does climate change affect timings in nature? Take part in the Nature’s Calendar citizen science project and help scientists discover answers to these questions. Simply record the signs of spring that you can see from your window or garden:

naturescalendar.woodlandtrust.org.uk

People's Trust for Endangered Species

Living with Mammals 2020 will run from 30th March to 28th June - watch for mammals that visit your garden and record them online.

Mammals on Roads survey: Although a sad sight, recording roadkill each year tells us about how wild mammals are faring in the wider landscape. Thousands of records of mammals, dead and alive, collected by hundreds of volunteers, have shown declines in wild populations: one key finding is that hedgehogs are rapidly disappearing. We’re now doing everything we can to help them. Taking part really can make a huge difference to mammal conservation .

River Fly

This is a great initiative: "The Riverfly Partnership spearheads an initiative to allow interested groups to take action that  will help conserve the river environment. This initiative provides a simple monitoring technique which groups can use to detect any severe perturbations in river water quality and puts them in direct communication with the local Ecological Contact of the Environment Agency (EA)" North Devon Angling News

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You can find a comprehensive list of citizen science opportunities for the whole country at : https://www.countryside-jobs.com/volunteers/citizen-science