As I’m sure regular readers of these blogs will know, most of the Natural Networks trainees have some form of placement with another organisation built into their year with TCV. One hadn’t been organised for me when I started at Coleraine, but my mentor swiftly got onto it, and I’ve just started a placement with the National Trust up on the North Coast. The area they work in covers the Giant’s Causeway (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), White Park Bay, Dunseverick Castle (and a few other places!) and is within the Causeway Coast Area of Outstanding Beauty (AONB). I started out by giving the National Trust staff a hand with their Coastal 2015 BioBlitz in Whitepark Bay, which was really good fun! We started on the Friday night with a bat walk – even though the weather was a bit misty and not ideal for bats, there were absolutely loads of pipistrelles flying around, it was amazing! Saturday involved lots of walks around the bay – I bounced between helping man the carpark and going on walks with the public, and saw lots of moths, butterflies and insects. All in all a really lovely day!
Cinnabar moth at Whitepark Bay
Intrepid bug hunters at the BioBlitz
Continuing on from the bat theme, I’ve attended a Daubenton Bat Survey training workshop ran by Bat Conservation Ireland, and signed up to do some Daubenton Bat surveying in my area – Daubenton bats feed by skimming insects from the surface of the water, so they’re generally found around rivers or woodland edges overlooking rivers. I’m going to be scouting out the rivers near me, find a nice couple of locations and give bat detecting a go! Wish me luck! Although this scheme is particular to Ireland, The Bat Conservation Trust runs a similar scheme in Scotland, Wales and England – it’s apparently very easy, so if you’d like to do one you can visit the Bat Conservation Trust’s website here.
I always like to get some kind of wildlife training into my monthly blogs (at the very least, the pictures are lovely!), and this month was no different. I went to Belvoir Forest Park to look at lichens, Slievenacloy Nature Reserve doing some grassland & heathland wildflower ID, Shane’s Castle in Antrim on an Ancient Woodland Restoration Workshop, and a Tree Identification Workshop in Castlewellan Arboretum. Phew, that’s a lot! It’s all been really helpful to get tips on identification from the experts, but at times it can be so daunting, there’s so much variety and diversity you never think you’re going to be able to remember it all! Luckily though, some of it is sticking – I’ve been able to ID bumblebees when I’m out and about, using tips and a field guide I had been given in a workshop a few months previously!
Lichen variety – there’s at least 5 on this branch!
‘The Hanging Tree’ in Shane’s Castle, Antrim. Spooky!
6-spot burnet enjoying a bit of Red Clover
3 different types of heather; ling, cross-leaved & bell.
Working with schools and community groups who are applying for funding to convert and improve their garden/green space continues to be a theme at the moment at Coleraine – before all the fun work can start once an application’s approved, there’s a certain amount of grunt work behind it – site visits to the area, where we use our experience from completing similar projects, and either suggest ideas to the schoolteacher/community group members, or advise them on whether their ideas can work feasibly. Then it’s back to the office to write up a site plan and quotation for the work, which schools and community groups then use in their applications for funding. All the different funders use different forms and have specific requirements for what type of work they will fund, so it can be a bit tricky keeping up with the current funds available, their respective deadlines, and which fund would be relevant for which group! The end result is always the best bit, but it’s always good to think back on all the work that made it possible for it to happen to begin with! I’ve been working with schools, assisting them with their applications, and supplying supporting information and maps to a community group in a small village who want to improve their local riverside walk. Then if their applications are successful (fingers crossed!), I’ll be helping out with community consultations and planning/implementing the work on site. I’m hoping that a few of these will come to fruition and I’ll be able to see them through from beginning to end, which would be absolutely great.
For the last few years, the Coleraine TCV office has hosted a foreign youth group who come over to Northern Ireland on a working holiday for 2 weeks. This year’s is no different, and in 2 weeks we’ll be having 9 people between the ages of 17 and 24 staying in the North Coast and volunteering with us. We’ve been busy organising their work itinerary, accommodation arrangements, and I’m planning on leading them on a few wildlife and tourist walks around the coast when we don’t have a work activity planned. It’ll be a great opportunity to tell them about some of the wildlife, history and geology surrounding the region. We’ll be working within the community as well, and have a few days planned where we will be going along and helping with community environmental events, such as Village Environment Days. It’s going to be a fun but busy 2 weeks – I’m off on holiday next week before they come – I’m planning on hiking (a little), barbequing (a bit) and relaxing (a lot!). Hope everyone’s enjoying their summer so far!