Hello again! Time for another update from the brownfield site apprentice
So… what have I been up to? Well, over the winter I have been doing my invertebrate id and writing up information into reports and a paper. So basically I’ve been staring either down a microscope or at a computer. Been really good overall after all the exciting things I’ve discovered when doing my id. I’ve written up information on all the species that I’ve recorded through collection or direct observation to help me remember their scientific names and to learn more about the species that I’ve recorded at my sites.
I was given the chance to go to the collections museum in Edinburgh to look at several beetles that I collected and identify them to species level. Richard Lyszkowski at the museum was really helpful and spent time with me looking at the collections and helped me get started on the beetles I had to look at. I also looked at the hoverflies again, so as I could go over the key and confirm their identifications.
As well as sitting at the computer I have been on a couple of courses including risk assessment and re-doing my first aid which expired last month. A couple of weeks ago I did a school visit for Buglife at a primary school in Possilpark in Glasgow. It was really difficult but overall it was great experience and some of the kids were amazing! One girl knew (or guessed) that a green tiger beetle was a ground beetle!!!!! Amazing!!
At the weekend I did a talk for the Tayside Recorders gathering about what makes brownfields biodiverse habitats and how important they are and the work I have been doing in Falkirk. I really enjoyed doing the talk and at the end several people came up to me and said they really enjoyed it as it gave them new ideas and a lot to think about. The whole gathering was really interesting as several people did talks and everyone who attended was really welcoming and friendly. I’ve attached a picture to show the first slide of my talk:
I have a busy few months ahead of me and unfortunately I finish my apprenticeship in 4 months I have really enjoyed all my experiences so far and will be really sad when it is over. I have just put out some pitfall traps (see picture below) at two brownfields that I didn’t sample at last year and I have also put out pan traps at two sites that I did sample last year so as to collect pollinators for these two sites. I will be doing a lot of hand searches and sweeping to collect invertebrates over the next few months at a couple of other brownfields in Falkirk.
I’m really excited about doing field work and for the spring and now I will hopefully be able to sort and identify species while I go. I will also be looking at wildflowers as I want to make sure I don’t forget any of them, especially with how much I learnt last year! In two weeks time I will be going down to Peterborough for the Buglife Members Day, which will be really nice to meet all the staff again and meet the charities members.
Thanks for reading!!