A big thanks to everyone who took part at our first 24 hour Bioblitz at Bell Lake Marsh in June. Despite forecasts of rain and drizzle, we were delighted to enjoy glorious sunshine, which really helped to bring out the wildlife. Together, we managed to record a total of 281 unique species/taxa – 148 of which had never previously been recorded at this site! Some of the weekend’s highlights: • We are very grateful to George Davis for bringing his moth traps to the Bioblitz. The site was more-or-less virgin territory for mothing, so the majority of new species records are thanks to him! • We also set up some live Small Mammal (Longworth) Traps overnight and, as well as lots of Wood Mice of various sizes, we were lucky enough to catch a Water Shrew! • When the sun went down, we were treated to an aerial display of bats, made even more vivid with the aid of Gary’s bat detector. • Some more of our favourite species recorded include Sparrowhawk, Common Lizard, Great Green Bush-cricket, Angular Orb-weaver Spider, 13 species of Dragonfly and Damselfly (including the site’s rare specialist, the Small Red Damselfly) and some rather fascinating galls. You can visit our Facebook group page for a full list of species recorded. This year’s Bioblitz now sets a precedent for the coming years. We have not yet confirmed a second Bioblitz, but I can say that all who took part thoroughly enjoyed the weekend, and I’m sure we can expect to see a repeat event within the next few years. It will be interesting to see how much of an impact our work will make on the species count. In the meantime, please do let us know about your sightings on our Facebook page or email me at [email protected]. Laura
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