The placement lasts for a year and is based on a 9-5 on Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday plus a few extras along the way. 'get as much out of it as you can' has been the advice from a few of the BBOWT team I already know. I have a fairly good knowledge of 'nature' compared to the man on the street, but here we are very much in the woods!
My philosophy going forward is, ask, record, revise! I'm lucky to be working with some very knowledgeable people, degree educated, years of experience etc. I'll post an occasional overview of a week and have already been asked to write a guest blog piece for BBOWT for the 30 DAYS WILD experience.
So here is a quick overview of my first week.
Tuesday. 9-5. the new boy.
I arrived at our site office to drama. A cow had gotten stuck between a wooden and metal fence, a narrow corrider that wasn't really cow sized! Everyone was running around with tools and a sense of emergency. By the time I saw someone I recognised, the cow had been freed and was being returned to the Common. So the first job, before any introductions or tours of the building was to repair the fence so the wandering cow couldn't get stuck again. There are over two hundred cows grazing on the common. We don't want to be doing this every day.
Introducing myself along the way, we fixed the fence and returned to the office for a chat about the day. With the weather being at it's most favourable for the week, Tuesday was going to be all about surveying.
Our first survey was a woodland survey and we jumped in the BBOWT Landrover and headed to a section of woodland at the South of Greenham Common by the side of the Business Park. An area we used to call 'sucking pigs' territory in my old job. I don't even know where to start, trying to explain that one, but picture a boggy gully where you can easily loose a boot at the wrong time of year.
The principal behind the woodland survey was to answer a series of questions about species / conditions etc. in ten different places in a set 'grid location'. Questions like; canopy coverage, sizes of trees, types of trees, percentage of bracken / nettles/ dock leaves, wild flowers etc.
It became very apparent how I need to learn more than half a dozen wild flowers that I currently know. One of the current CT's is very good on her wild flowers (as is the person delivering the training) and it certainly speeds up the learning when you can rely on people like that. I was slowly filling up my notebook and phone (picture album) with new species of flowers. 'ask, record, revise'!
Germander Speedwell, Enchanter's Nightshade and Wood Sorrel added to the mental database.
10 areas surveyed, all slightly different and different trees / flowers etc. and it was back to the office for lunch.
Yellow Pimpernel
At Crookham we walked a set route of eleven segments, looking 2.5 metres each side of the path and 5 metres ahead and above. Simply recording the amount and species of butterfly you see and recording how much sunlight (in percentage) there was in each segment. Generally the butterfly hunker down when the sun goes in.
We didn't actually see many. It was partly cloudy and there wasn't much out, but it was good to learn the route and procedure for next time. Along the walk we were very close to a singing Nightingale, deep in the cover though.
In the second (Business Park) section we were looking specifically for the butterfly called Small Blue. A tiny butterfly that is actually more brown than blue (thanks google) and they like a wild plant called Kidney Vetch.
Small blue on kidney vetch (Keith Balmer)
Drove back to the office, my turn to drive the Landy this afternoon and driving on the Common is always good. A Little Egret kept circling us as we drove back. One I don't have to learn.
Wednesday. 5 a.m. to noon.
Yes! Five a.m.! A Dawn Chorus walk had been planned for the volunteer group and staff that wanted to attend. Setting the alarm for 3:50 a.m is something I haven't done for quite a while.
It was actually a bit late in the day for the actual dawn chorus, the birds were singing when I left the house at 4:20. But we had a good walk of three hours around the common listening out for as many species as we could. The walk was led by John Swallow, a member of the Newbury District Ornothology Club who I have known for a while from our work at the local Bird Hide lake. John's a good chap.
Five o'clock on Greenham Common.
Thirty Eight species of bird were recorded that morning, the highlight probably being views of a cuckoo and an ascending woodlark. The Nightingale were also in good voice.
After some excellent bacon butties, cooked at HQ, we spent the rest of the day in Bowdown Woods, checking the newt 'traps' that were set by the rest of the team the day before.
Three ponds were set with adapted traps that were cola bottles on bamboo canes. The newts swim in a narrow tapered opening, making it a lot harder to swim out, but the traps are only set for a short time so no harm done.
The first pond drew a blank. Traps brought in and on to the second pond that gave better reward.A couple of male palmated newts had been caught. Named palmated as the males have rear webbed toes. From this pond we also trapped a couple of baby newt, called Efts, and a couple of Great Diving Beetle larvae.
The third pond also worked well for us, again, palmated newts.
The traps were then washed out and cleaned back at base and that was Wednesday, Home to sleep for an hour or two.
Thursday - 9-5. Adders!
When it was mentioned that we would be doing the occasional adder tracking session I couldn't help but get goosebumps. I've seen a few grass snake in the last few years, mostly on or around Greenham Common, but I don't think I've ever seen an adder... until today.
Working with a snake expert called Nigel we spent the day tracking adders that had been previously radio tagged, recording where we find them, (GPS), the time and temperature etc. Not gonna lie, it was a brilliant day. Nigel is so knowledgeable and it was great to ask so many questions about this shy reptile. I mentioned I'd never seen an adder before, well after seeing ten on Thursday I am happy to say I now have! What a great day!
Not only did we see the adders but we also saw a newborn calf! I declined on being shown the afterbirth.
We spent the day at a number of locations in West Berkshire each taking turns to use the aerial and monitor. I was only on my third day and was already shaking my head in disbelief of all the fabulous experiences I was having. Nature is my passion and although I have 51 weeks of training left, I so hope this leads to a full time position somewhere.
Recording details of an adder we tracked.
Friday - 8 p.m.to 11.00 p.m. Nightjar Survey.
With the arrival of warmer weather, and the spring migrants, on Friday BBOWT ran a Nightjar survey.
A number of locations were monitored by staff and volunteers, looking and listening for Nightjar.
Nightjar prefer to nest on heathland areas, amongst heather or maybe gorse. The area we had been given wasn't supposed to be a good one, according to previous years, but we'd certainly see and hear other stuff, so I was happy. I've seen Nightjar before on guided walks so can't complain.
Click on RSPB Nighjar and listen to the churring. A great noise that travels for quite a way!
The survey ran from 9:30 - 10:30 p.m. Actually I was surprised it even went ahead as we had a monster thunder storm in Andover before hand, but it largely stayed dry and our spot actually came up trumps! One Nightjar was heard churring in the distance and six woodcock over our heads. Tawny Owl calling and a barking Muntjak deer also heard. But oh my god! The midgies!!! They don't normally bother me so much. I was wrapped up fairly well, but they found ways through and I was actually pleased it started to rain for a bit. I was getting eaten alive!
The hour was up and we walked back to base, across Greenham Common (old military runway of over three miles in length) as a thunderstorm gained momentum over our heads. It was sheet lightening, so I guess we were ok???
So, first week done. Good experiences shared with good people. Working with a nice bunch makes a big difference. Hashtag Lucky. :-)
