Owlthorpe Fields's Journal

Hello all,
I have downloaded all the data for July and I can report we now have made 687 observations and identified 294 species. This breaks down to:
Observations Species
Plants 388 155
Insects 175 77
Birds 65 29
Fungi 16 11
Mammals 19 10
Molluscs 13 10
Spiders 3 3
Amphibians 1 1
Reptiles 0 0

This is fantastic. Keep up the good work.
Can I just ask that when you upload your observations can you put in the 'Notes' field the number you have seen or a rough estimate if there are a lot. There isn't a field for the quantity seen but if you include it in the notes field I can enter it on to the SRWT database more accurately.

Hello everyone, and welcome to our new contributors. Your observations are much appreciated and keep them coming. We are getting towards the end of the prime summer recording season so now is the time to get out and about spotting things.
Of course, we need to be reporting sightings all year round but the invertebrate species are more numerous at this time of year. We are planning an end of summer bio-blitz in the next two weeks so charge your cameras and mobiles up ready to record EVERYTHING you spot and if you can cajole family and friends in to coming along or joining our iNaturalist project that would be fantastic.

We now have 330 species and 806 observations!
Thank you for all your contributions.

Good morning Everyone, not so good weather today.

Thank you all for coming out to the mini bio-blitz yesterday. It was lovely to meet some of our new contributors rather than just seeing a name on the APP!

It is becoming increasingly difficult to find new species as we've all spent so much time walking in the fields over the lockdown and during this strange era of our history. Nonetheless, yesterday's bio-blitz has taken our total number of observed species to 400. Well done everyone.

Please don't stop as the weather turns autumnal. The different seasons will bring forth different species, although we most likely won't record as many during autumn and winter. As Paul Richards from the Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust indicated it is within the insects/invertebrates/molluscs groups that we are most likely to find rare species on Owlthorpe Fields. Unfortunately, these are also going to be the most difficult for us to positively identify. Paul Richards has very kindly agreed to help us identify some as best he can but we must bare in mind that identifying insects/invertebrates and molluscs is a broad field and Paul cannot be an expert in all of them.

Another point to bear in mind is that the ID's given by iNaturalist can be slightly dodgy, with some identifiers suggesting North American species that certainly will not be found in the UK. If a strange species is identified have a good look down the list then research on the internet whether it is likely to be one of the suggested species. If you cannot identify it at all send it to the project email owlaction500@gmail.com and we will try and get it professionally identified for you.

I'd like to thank you all for taking the time to record your observations. This is a big help in preserving our local environment for future generations to enjoy, and help restore the balance to the natural world that the human race has wreaked havoc on with devastating consequences.

Keep the observations coming everyone.