Bioblitz: Making Nature Count at Denmark Farm
We would like to start by saying a massive thank you to all our experts who came to lead recording sessions at our recent Bioblitz on 1st June 2024: Paul Taylor, Arfon Williams, Pete Skinner, Red Liford, Jenny Macpherson and Liz Snell.
A big thank you to Yusef & Carys from West Wales Biodiversity Information Centre (WWBIC) for coming to lead a workshop on how to record and what to do with your records and for taking recordings on the day.
Finally a huge thank you to all our volunteers who came to help with recording, making cake, pizza, tea & coffee and supporting us.
Over 200 species were recorded during the event!
Red Liford led two great sessions, one on fern identification and a very educational bird walk, covering songs and calls.
Pete Skinner, Liz Snell and Arfon Williams recorded the moths. Thank you Pete & Arfon for letting us use your moth traps and coming and setting them up the night before. The nights were still a bit cold and damp around the first of June, but there was still plenty to look at, including poplar hawk-moth, buff tip moth and elephant hawk-moth.
Arfon also checked on our resident barn owls and there were five chicks, but only one large enough to ring at that point in time.
Paul Taylor covered butterflies and other insects and Jenny Macpherson led on a small mammal nut identification.
You may be asking ‘what is a BioBlitz?’
Well, it’s a day of recording all of the various species of wildlife found.
If you missed out on attending our BioBlitz don’t worry as we will be running another one in 2025!
Meadows and orchids
We have two wildflower meadows which are cut for hay each year. All the wildflowers have naturally reappeared without any reseeding. With have a mix of cattle (Highlands and Shorthorn x Herefords) that graze the compartments here at Denmark Farm, and are kept out of our two wildflower meadows from the 1st of May. The meadows are then cut late July-to mid August once most of the wildflowers have dropped their seed. Orchids tend to drop their seeds late in to August so we try and stagger the cutting time to benefit different species, and so the farmer coming to cut still has good hay to take away and the grazier has regrowth to return the cattle to. This year as well as our Southern marsh-orchids which are spreading across Pond Field, we also have the return of the Heath spotted-orchid, last recorded in 2021.
National Meadows Day 2024 – Saturday 6th July 2024
Reconnect with nature this weekend and take part in National Meadows Day on Saturday 6 July!
Visit your local meadow. #NationalMeadowsDay
Escape the chaos and unwind by visiting your local meadow
See what blooming beauties you can spot
Can’t visit a meadow this Saturday?
Tune into @plantlife.loveplants Instagram live at 4pm on Saturday and join Plantlife’s Sarah Shuttleworth for a virtual visit to a Somerset meadow
Join us in celebrating our magnificent meadows on #NationalMeadowsDay2024
- Let’s celebrate our meadows, their biodiversity and what special/relaxing places they are to visit.
- Wildflower meadows look at their most beautiful in the summer – full of colour, sounds and endless blooms. But they are also hugely important sanctuaries for wildlife, help lock up carbon below ground and can have a huge impact on our wellbeing.
- But our meadows are in trouble. We have lost approximately 97% of flower-rich meadows since the 1930’s (taking with them vital food needed by pollinators like bees and butterflies).
Coming up during the Summer Holidays we are running some Family Wildlife Recording Clubs: Family Wildlife Recording Club – Denmark Farm Conservation Centre
To book drop an email to: ryan@denmarkfarm.org.uk
