Who flicked the switch ?

Thank you for your kind donation Riley. Will help us secure this latest plot 🙏 and save the animals.

Thank you for your kind donation 🍀💚

Trees glorious trees 🌳
Lots of the native trees we have planted are growing well, especially alder, willow and birch. Below is a collage of some of these trees on plots 2, 4, 5 and 6. The center image is of an alder producing seeds on plot 4. This was wonderful to see 🌳

We also surveyed plot 2 this year, after not managing to access it last year. It's only accessible around the edges due to the density of growth. Great news here - we identified an otter 💩(spraint) on a fallen log & the willows we planted in 2021 have started to become mature 🌳

During this visit we also undertook a baseline species count of plot 7 removed from dairy farming in July 2024 and plot 8, removed from dairy farming on the 14th of May this year. There are several badger setts near plot 8 and we recorded one possible badger latrine there 🦡

We saw many butterflies & moth species this year too. Below is a selection of the butterflies & a few of the moths photographed and recorded 🦋

Butterflies have increased by 60% since last year

drive.google.com/file/d/1_V2o...

Below are the birds seen or heard & identified by a local ornithology expert, Pete, who recorded their songs & knew where to look for certain birds. Most birds were also verified by using the Merlin bird song app.
Bird species have greatly increased (by 73.9%) since last year 🦉

This year we identified 10 different mammal species. We saw each deer species (Muntjac, Roe, Fallow & Red) as well as a wood mouse. The badger, otter & hedgehog were accurately identified by their scats & moles were identified by their countless molehills 🦔🦦🐹🦡🦊🦌

Overall, we recorded an incredible 217 animals and 197 plants including:

3 reptile species
7 mammal species
139 insect species
40 bird species
8 Gastropoda species (snails and slugs)
19 arachnid (spider) species
1 amphibian species

A 57.2% increase in fauna species since 2022.

Important note: We were incredibly careful & carried out these counts with great sensitivity. This species survey was undertaken gently & without harm. As you can see by the photo of the tiny toadlet below, we had to be very careful where we slowly walked 🐸

We had three glorious days recording species & below is a collage of all of the life we photographed & identified by their various markings, via sound recordings & photographs of droppings 🦎🐝🕷️🦋🦡🦉🦔🐸🦊🦌🌼🌿🌱🌳

drive.google.com/file/d/1_V2o...
Image

Dedicated volunteers gently made their way over each site recording species. Take a look at the incredible image of a Thistle Gall Wasp photographed by Anne-Marie & a Red Soldier Beetle photographed by Cleve😍 Can you spot the Orbweaver Spider hiding next to Red Soldier Beetle?🕷️