I'm hoping to see it later in the week.

Flowers of Tufted Sedge

There were a few remnant species here, perhaps most notably Parsley Water-dropwort, but I've reintroduced Tufted Sedge to add structure to the areas not dominated by reed. (It became locally extinct at this site in ~1970's)

Short sward on right compared to rough grass and brambles outside grazed area on left

More contrast between grazed and ungrazed areas of rough grassland

You can also see the effect of grazing (right) versus ungrazed on the rough grassland. Hopefully we can reduce the vigour of the reeds in the reedbed and course grasses (Cock's-foot, Yorkshire Fog etc) in the grassland to make space for a wider variety and better transition from one to the other.

View of Loversall Pool from the edge, looking to be dominated by the ruset colour of last year's reed stems

Fairly dense reed stand

Patchy reed stand

Area of reedbed trampled by cattle

At first look this area just looks like a reedbed. And getting into parts of it there is indeed dense reed. But other parts are patchy or completely open, while other dense bits have been roughed up by Highlands (that were moved off today).

#fen #ecology #grazing

Thanks James. We managed to get some students to a conference the other week (and took contact details!) otherwise it's hard to get young people to attend. So outreach is definitely a good place to start.

No one has suggested a trip to a museum before yet, so I'll add that to the list.

🙂

Despite being half the age of several people at the meeting, I'm not young. And took the opportunity at lunchtime to take a few sawflies, a nomad bee etc, that I will now look at under a microscope.

This also disqualifies me from pontificating on what young people want.

He suggested young people are less like to:
Have a collection of specimens
Use printed guides
Use a microscope

Which was the mainstay of many people's experience of getting into entomology.

What do people think? Is this the case, about needing a different approach? How do we do that?

At the @ynuorg.bsky.social meeting yesterday, an eminent educator on the topic of invertebrates suggested we need to think differently about how we engage young people in entomology (at least at the start).

Meet people where they are (not how we started being interested in insects), was his message

Rue leaved saxifrage in gap between flag stones

Meadow saxifrage in gap between flag stones

As well as invertebrates I managed to look at a few plants. Rue-leaved Saxifrage in-between stone flags was somewhat expected, but Meadow Saxifrage in a crack wasn't (not it's usual habitat - I'll have to check I don't think it's been recorded here before).

Green veined white butterfly resting on light pink flower of cuckooflower

It was Invertebrate Day for me today (meeting of @ynuorg.bsky.social to talk about invertebrates) at Potteric Carr. The weather was typical spring, breezy on and off, sunny on and off. Saw this lovely fresh Green-veined White on a Cuckoo-flower.

@bcyorkshire.bsky.social

I think we're about at peak bluebell in this part of South Yorkshire at the moment.

A great time for a walk in the woods, perhaps @yorkswildlife.bsky.social Sprotbrough Flash or Hetchell Wood would be worth a visit this weekend

But perhaps more surprisingly the @nbntrust.bsky.social Atlas only has 5 records, all in Wales. So there must be a lack of records, or problem with data making it's way to the NBN.

All the data is available here though bioscan.tol.sanger.ac.uk

I've been running a Malaise trap as part of the Bioscan project for a couple of years. They take specimens (invertebrates) and do DNA based magic on them to work out what's in the samples.

Unsurprisingly 74% of all individuals were flies (Diptera), but 12% of all individuals were one species!

St George's Mushroom popping up in grassland

Group of St George's Mushroom with view of stem and gills

A few patches of St George's Mushroom today. They were in fields that were arable until about 20 years ago, so it must be a reasonably good coloniser (as some grassland species are almost exclusively associated with very old grassland).

@yorkswildlife.bsky.social

It seems to be fairly widespread in the uplands, but as not well recorded to reflect that

Another trip to Valmalenco over. Early spring turned out well, very warm for the time of year. More Spring Cinquefoil here that I've ever seen in Yorkshire. And despite looking at loads of patches of Spring Sedge no Rare Spring Sedge seen.

Plenty more to find on future trips (to see family honest)

My wife and kids acquiesced to my saying "can we stop at that car park on the way back, there's a plant I'd like to look at".

I've either trained them well, or bludgeoned them into botanical submission. 🤷‍♂️

Yellow flowered plant, with hairy stems and leaves amongst moss and bare ground.

I know that things aren't the same abroad, but I can't help get a little excited when I see something that would be rare or unusual back home.

Spring Cinquefoil is a sign of a really good grassland in Yorkshire. This was by a roundabout and car park in Valmalenco, Italy.

Also land sparing at any great scale or with sufficient connectivity is not going to be feasible even if you could increase productivity of the rest of the land.

Some land sparing, eg to increase the size of a Local Wildlife Site, is good. But less intensive management could hold more benefits.

Easter isn't the best time for spring flowers (we came to visit family), but some early spring flowers around.

Patches are still snow covered or ground frozen, other bits are warmer. Alpine Squill and Spring Crocus are common, other things like Oxlip are either less frequent or only just in flower

I saw my first Orange Tip of the year today in Doncaster. No Cuckoo flower in flower yet though.

@bcyorkshire.bsky.social

Plant more). So timing of grazing plus grazing for long enough can be effective at habitat management. But if this were commercial grazing you wouldn't do this, they'll put on weight less quickly than in a 'normal' situation

In a larger field you can't force them to eat less palatable stuff so well

This is a relatively small parcel (4ha or so) and very little is tasty and green. So in a couple of weeks they'll eat the other stuff. Common Reed is not very palatable, but more so when fresh, so if you want to reduce it it's most effective in spring (both more tasty, and takes energy from the

The 4 young Highland cattle that were on Seven Arches Carr have moved this morning to Loversall Pool, at Potteric Carr.

They are investigating their surroundings, and eating the grassland around the edges, they'll get to the reedbed and fen when the tasty stuff is finished.

We also have large ones, do you want a cow-off? 😜🤣

They have periodic testing to see if wormers are needed, and only then are they wormed using the less bad end of the spectrum.

These 4 haven't been wormed for ages, so should be no impact on dung fauna.

After checking the cattle I helped round up the Hebridean sheep for some TLC and general check.

They've done a great job in this field, and will be moving on to another soon.

The delightful side effect of cattle is some lovely poo. Here some male Yellow Dung-flies hanging around waiting for a female. She'll then lay eggs on the poo.

There will be lots of dung beetles about too. But none seen today.

@ynuorg.bsky.social

These 4 young Highland cattle are in a remote part of Potteric Carr. They are helping to open up the fen and reduce the thick reeds. They'll go back on in summer when the new green reeds are more edible to reduce their vigour.

On the way to the @ynuorg.bsky.social conference in York. I can't help looking for plants whilst waiting for the train. Not much in flower yet, but one or two things like this Ivy-leaved Toadflax.