Wilder Blean Monitoring Team
The Wilder Blean monitoring team has been busy getting a project baseline together over the summer. We’ve had a lot of very interesting data come in for Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and birds in general, vegetation and invertebrates and are working closely with the Kent Bat Group, the Kent Mammal Group, Kent Reptile and Amphibian Group and Butterfly Conservation who are all helping us monitor the Blean.
Our butterfly volunteers have done a fantastic job walking the butterfly transects in collaboration with Butterfly Conservation and we’ve also had a new group of volunteers who have been looking at Heath Fritillary foodplants this survey season. They’ve put in a phenomenal amount of effort to cover the entire project area over the course of June, July and August and have been looking at distribution and abundance of common cow-wheat and ribwort plantain, both of which are foodplants for our Heath Fritillary.
We also have an exciting new volunteering opportunity coming up in autumn, particularly for people interested in invertebrates. We will be looking at all the invertebrates we have collected in our flight intercept traps over the summer and will identify them to order. No pre-existing knowledge or skills required – watch out for the volunteering vacancy to be announced.
On behalf of the Wilder Blean Team I’d like to conclude with a huge thank you to all our Wilder Blean volunteers – your input is invaluable and hugely appreciated.
