Winter habitat works = completed mate! @Rootsupwards grafted in extreme weather conditions💪🌦️🌊❄️ Trialled diff techniques including conservation laying, cluttered vs open glades & new bird ringing rides. Blackthorn management never gets old @GGPWildlife #BiodiversityGatwick
My #BirdTrack year summary - not entirely comprehensive because I also submit some casual records via @iRecordWildlife, but I really like these infographics by the @_BTO @BirdTrack Most of this is work I carried out with @hawkeye_tom #wildliferecording #BiodiversityGatwick
2022 Gatwick trail camera compilation (sound on 🍃🦌🦊🦅🕊️🔊) #BiodiversityGatwick @naturespy #wildliferecording
@GGPWildlife @SussexWildlife
youtu.be/V51q-ZfrJZY
Public service announcement to all small birds - if you fly in to a bird ringing processing station you are likely to get some new bling... Our 4th Black Redstart ever to be ringed at Gatwick, and by far the most obliging 😂 All birds ringed under licence #BiodiversityGatwick
Yesterday, a gap in the foul weather led to some important clearance works with the @GGPWildlife volunteer reserve managers. We did it, we cleared them christmas treats right up. And opened up a woodland glade. #BiodiversityGatwick #ConservationVolunteering @SussexWildlife
More wintry landscape shots (🥱🤣) this time from the other side at Gatwick Woodlands, Land East ❄️🌲🦅 A Buzzard and two Sparrowhawks were being harassed by Crows and Jays. Redwing on the ground everywhere in the woods #BiodiversityGatwick
0 centigrade at midday on site checks around the North West Zone. I missed the best of the snow when my car tyre burst, had only made it 2 miles from the house! Plan your journeys wisely everyone and if its not essential then just don't risk it 😁 #BiodiversityGatwick
Very sad to be saying goodbye to this legend. Tom Errett was 1/3 of the Gatwick Environment Team, and it was a real privilege to work with him the past 5 years on the project. The end of an era @Gatwick_Airport but he will go on to do great things. #BiodiversityGatwick
Our latest bird ringing session was a bit light on numbers, but high on quality! This female Sparrowhawk is one we'd been hoping to get for a while now, beautifully savage! Amazing detail of the plumage on the Woodcock... Nice work @Stu625418 #birdringing #BiodiversityGatwick
Witnessed one of my trail cams on the River Mole getting fully dunked twice and I couldn't get to it for over a week... And it STILL WORKS 🤣 Kudos to Browning @naturespy It stopped recording when fully underwater but you get close to the moment 😭👏👏👏 #BiodiversityGatwick
While @aplin_nick was visiting last week, shocked to find one of the massive English Oaks on Gatwick Stream Flood Attenuation site had been lightening struck - it's fully dead! Deadwood will continue to provide resources for many different kingdoms of life #BiodiversityGatwick
Last week I caught up with @aplin_nick Sussex Fungi Group for a foray around the Land East. Highlights:
Cobalt Crust
Purple Jellydisc
And slime mould Trichia varia, hanging out with a flat-backed millipede and its generous store of poop #BiodiversityGatwick #ukfungi @SxBRC
Trudging through the mud to service the River Mole trail cameras and totally wasn't expecting to come across this Crimson Speckled moth! Apparently an influx of these being seen especially around the coast, seems like a good year for them #BiodiversityGatwick #mothtrapping
I got to have a crack electrofishing for the first time! Pike, Barbel and Gudgeon (not pictured) were some of the highlights. Really fun survey and great to see so many diff species in the hand, I learned lots! Will have forgotten most of it by next week 😅 #BiodiversityGatwick
A Firecrest to warm us after a frosty pre-dawn start! New to the ringed list #BiodiversityGatwick 🥶🔥 Last pic shows comparison with a Goldcrest
Final #mothtrapping of the year at Brockley Wood. New spp to me were Green Brindled Crescent, Satellite & Brindled Green. The Hornets snaffling the Dusky Thorn were not my favourites. Good species diversity this year but low numbers overall @HorshamWildlife #BiodiversityGatwick
Awesome pirate spider Ero tuberculata found by Jake last night, this one was creeping into the web of Zygiella X-notata. Apparently very local to the South East, not in the usual heathland habitat here along the River Mole @BritishSpiders #BiodiversityGatwick
#mothtrapping along the River Mole last night, a nice diversity of species tho still light on numbers. Some of the usual early autumn suspects : Sallow, Burnished Brass and White Point a few highlights, around 33 species total #BiodiversityGatwick @barnard_ian @HorshamWildlife
Hide and seek with this Willow Emerald Damselfly yesterday at the restored Rolls Farm Pond. Am over half way through the 2022 baseline dragonfly surveys at Gatwick 🐲🪰 #Odonata #BiodiversityGatwick
Clouded Yellow butterfly on today's North West Zone transect means we hit our maximum species total of 30 🥳 (Need a Purple Emperor to get us up to 31, yet to happen on this transect!) Also great to see White Bryony in flower on one of the road verges #BiodiversityGatwick
Checking out our brownfield & urban interfaces, these hidden pockets of the airport are valuable habitats in their own right... A second brood of Black Redstarts! My first Wheatear of autumn! Unapologetically dodgy phone-scope shot of Little Ringed Plover! #BiodiversityGatwick
Sorting through my collected Grass Snake skins for the @ARC_Bytes reptile genebank. The first year I've started collecting and I regret not doing it sooner because we have such weird coloured varieties here at Gatwick, could be some interesting genetics... #BiodiversityGatwick
Super grumpy today because I dropped a red-eyed damselfly before I could ID it. But did get to see Araneus angulatus, my fave spid (and new to the NWZ site). Plus two Common Blues mating... so now you all know what a butterfly's everted penis looks like 😁🙌 #BiodiversityGatwick
What a crazy place to get a tick! Was in the field only for the morning and just found it now. My third this year, a new dubious record #BiodiversityGatwick
Excited to find the chunky Long-horned General today on the River Mole, a soldier fly was last recorded here in 2015. This female looks so much like a female Long-horned Bee to me! A scarce coastal species, but is it increasing its range? #BiodiversityGatwick @SoldierfliesRS
Butterfly transect and bird ringing ride maintenance today with the @GGPWildlife Volunteer Reserve Managers while increasing site protection. Always a struggle to keep up with these guys, reyt machines! #BiodiversityGatwick
Better numbers in moth traps. Green Silver-lines a winner. @HorshamWildlife surprised to see Musotima nitidalis, a recent colonist to UK on Bracken. A tiny Pebble Prominent was also a surprise. Less of a surprise to see the old moth trappers legs out again #BiodiversityGatwick
The 3am alarm is quite brutal but the rewards great! New site records including Skylark and Slowworm, a bumper day for Grassies and even a Snakefly put in an appearance.
Counts of 14 grassies in NWZ vs. 17 in LERL are both all-time record counts 🐍🎊🥳 #BiodiversityGatwick
