Sunday, 12 May 2019

Helping with a bird survey & building an insect 'resort' at Lyme on Sun 12th May


Lyme Park has a diverse set of habitats, but the Rangers are always happy to have more information on what exactly is living where. Last year they undertook a survey of the birds on the estate and this year, 8 from MNTV helped out, on the workday this Sunday. The information that is gathered will help towards planning for increasing species diversity and protection of rare species.
For our part in the survey we were on Park Moor - the highest area of Lyme, a moorland composed of grasses, sedges and reeds - and Cluse Hey, which is a mixture of woodland and moor.
After some training in recognising the songs and appearance of the two main bird species that we were expected to see, skylarks and meadow pipits, we split into three groups to cover the areas in the morning. In addition to the two common moorland birds already mentioned, we saw buzzards, swallows and various corvids.
After lunch, one group continued the survey and another went back to the Ranger's office to help with constructing not an insect hotel, but an insect resort, using wood offcuts and recycle pallets and posts. The work wasn't finished at the end of the day, but it is quite a task. The Rangers are hoping to build 4 or 5 of these. Getting them to their destinations will be a challenge as it already took 4 of us to lift the frame before we started adding the wood for the nooks and crannies. 

Text from Mick and photo's from Adrian

1 comment:

Old techno said...

Your contributions at Lyme are much appreciated.