Owlthorpe Fields's Boletim

08 de fevereiro de 2024

New Name, New Focus

Hello all,
I'm sat here in the depths of winter watching the snow fall and nothing much else to do other than check over my last year's iNaturalist records and write a little update for the Owlthorpe Fields project.

As you can see from the banner we have finally got around to changing our name and a slight modification to our logo. After doing a Facebook pole of four suggested names, the overwhelming majority voted for Owlthorpe Conservation Group. So, this is what we will be called from henceforth, with the logo now being OCG not OAG (you can see it on the project banner).

We took the decision to change the name as our focus going forward is on enhancing Owlthorpe fields so that the local community and wildlife can share these places harmoniously. We are looking to improve them for the benefit of both people and the local wildlife. 'Conservation' group is a better reflection of what we are looking to do going forward. After 5 years of exhausting campaigning we are enjoying giving something back to the people who have supported throughout our endeavours to preserve these lovely wildlife rich Fields. We aren't content with just preventing development on the fields, we are striving to improve them and do our bit to tackle the biodiversity crisis in the UK.

We need to keep recording everything we see on the Fields as things change over time, species come and go and decline or increase. It's not exactly the weather for it at the moment, certainly not today, but spring is not far around the corner and there will soon be some lovely spring days to go out and record the early spring wildflower not forgetting of course the nesting birds.

Posted on 08 de fevereiro de 2024, 12:04 PM by vetch10 vetch10 | 0 comentários | Deixar um comentário

31 de agosto de 2022

Long Overdue Update, Summer 2022

Hello all,
This update is long overdue (almost 18 months!) but now seemed a timely opportunity to do it.

In July this year the Sheffield Local Wildlife Sites (LWS) Partnership met for the first time in over 2 years (delayed due to Covid). Evidence from all our observations on the fields, along with data from the professional habitat survey we commissioned, was used to demonstrate to the representatives on the panel that the sites met the criteria for designation as LWS. The panel unanimously (with one abstention) agreed that it should be included as LWS along with the already designated sites in Owlthorpe.

This is a massive milestone for us and a reflection of all the hard work you have put in, going out there throughout the changing seasons and recording what you see. So, thank you to everyone for your commitment, it has all been worth the effort and finally paid off.

We have also put in an application for the area to be designated as local green space, which included all the observations we have recorded here in our project as evidence, along with community statements and additional data required for scrutiny. We await the outcome of this but the DRAFT new Local Plan is approaching release for public consultation and we are hoping that our evidence and the LWS designation will be sufficient for Owlthorpe Fields to be excluded from housing allocation.

Please don't stop recording as there are no doubt many more species on the fields that we still haven't recorded. We also need to keep reporting the common species otherwise it looks like they have disappeared, when in fact we probably just take them for granted. Everything matters!

We'll keep you updated on the local green space designation as soon as we have further information.

Posted on 31 de agosto de 2022, 01:45 PM by vetch10 vetch10 | 1 comentário | Deixar um comentário

15 de fevereiro de 2021

Spring will be upon us soon (I hope)

Hello everyone,
It's been a cold few weeks and not always conducive to going out for a walk, Observations are inevitably a bit thin on the ground at this time of year, especially if it has snowed!
However, I have noticed when walking in the Ochre Dyke and Hanging Lea woodlands that the bluebells, Dogs Mercury and Cuckoo Pint are starting to shoot up out of the woodland floor, and today the sun is shining. So, hopefully spring is not too far over the horizon.

Ochre Dyke woodland has now been included on the Ancient Woodland Inventory by Natural England and Hanging Lea Woodland should follow shortly.

A very short post today but hopefully more will follow in the coming weeks.
Enjoy watching the fields awaken again with the spring sunshine (and rain probably).

Posted on 15 de fevereiro de 2021, 02:59 PM by vetch10 vetch10 | 0 comentários | Deixar um comentário

16 de dezembro de 2020

A Big Thank You

Hello everyone. No post for a while but a lot has been happening. We have had many of our mushroom/fungi observations verified by a local fungi expert and I think we should all feel a little more confident with our identifications as apparently we did rather well!

I'm glad to see we are all adding the odd one or two observations despite the recent horrible weather. It doesn't exactly entice one outdoors does it. A few sightings I have made recently - I have disturbed a few woodcock resting in the grass. I thought I had been misidentifying these and possibly they were female pheasants but my last 2 sightings were very clear and my eyes were not deceiving me. Also, we have had siskins on our feeder for the first time ever in Owlthorpe!
The main reason for this journal post though is to thank everyone for contributing. You may or may not be aware but as a result of our observations within the Ochre Dyke and Hanging Lea Woodlands Natural England have assessed the submitted evidence, which includes our observations recorded here on iNaturalist, and both woodlands have been formally designated as ancient. The Ancient Woodland Inventory will be updated by Natural England in February to include both Ochre Dyke and Hanging Lea. This is a fantastic result, so a big thank you to everyone who has contributed to the observations.

I know it is very tempting not to record something that you have previously added before. I myself have observed many birds in the fields that I do not include every single time. However, we do need to keep adding them to iNaturalist or the assumption will be that they have declined in number of disappeared altogether. I know it can be difficult to find the time but keep adding as and when you can fit them in.
Once again a big thank you to everyone for contributing. More news will follow in the New Year to show what benefit your many and conscientious observations have made to Owlthorpe Fields.

Posted on 16 de dezembro de 2020, 09:53 PM by vetch10 vetch10 | 1 comentário | Deixar um comentário

21 de outubro de 2020

Mushroom Season

Hello everyone on this damp miserable October afternoon. It may be damp and miserable for us but the fungi are loving it. We have recorded a lot of different fungi species over the last few weeks and I'm finding them really fascinating. Alas, I think we are all struggling a bit with ID because there are so many that look very similar. I am told that mushroom ID can be a very tactile affair, sometimes having to touch, smell and even taste them at times. Please DON'T taste any though as there are some truly nasty ones about. I think with names like deathcap and destroying angel you can imagine what the consequences would be! Personally I will be sticking firmly to Asda mushrooms.
It is also noticeable that the community on iNaturalist are also struggling to ID our fungi images. I think that is because it is quite a specialist area and you will need to take photos of the gills, the stem and closeups of the cap with a scale indicator to have some hope of them being identified. Where fungi is concerned the more photos the better; So concentrate on photos from every angle including gills and stem........oh and have a sniff but not a taste.
Having said that please do keep uploading them to iNaturalist as we can research them later.
We now have 495 species on iNaturalist, although sightings have inevitably slowed at this time of year. Keep uploading though as our data has proved invaluable over the last few months. More on that at a later date.
Keep looking for those mushrooms!

Posted on 21 de outubro de 2020, 03:45 PM by vetch10 vetch10 | 0 comentários | Deixar um comentário

21 de setembro de 2020

Stats Update

Hello everyone,
I've finally finished uploading all your August observations to the Nature Counts database. Sorry for the delay but I have been on holiday. So, I thought I'd give you a bit of a statistics update so you can see what progress we are making.
In august we made 433 observations, that brings a total number of observations in the project to 1,203.
To break that down further:
We have identified 469 species so far.

222 species of plants
138 species of insects
40 species of birds
26 species of fungi
15 species of arachnids
12 species of mammal
9 species of molluscs

I expect observations will slow down now that Autumn is upon us but don't stop looking. keep your eyes open and upload anything you observe, even if you have reported it before.

A big thank you to everyone for all the observations you have contributed over a short period of time. Hopefully we can expand on this over the next year.
Thank you.

Posted on 21 de setembro de 2020, 08:44 PM by vetch10 vetch10 | 0 comentários | Deixar um comentário

13 de setembro de 2020

Autumn Approaches

Hello everyone,
Sorry for the delay in updating everyone but I have been away on holiday in beautiful Scotland. Of course, we have our fair share of species here on Owlthorpe Fields as well, and we have now identified 465 species. I have downloaded all the reported sightings for August and myself and Phil are in the process of uploading them on to the Nature Counts (Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust) database for uploading to the National Biodiversity Network’s database, the NBN Atlas.

We are now well in to September and in the coming months and weeks the weather is going to become less inviting for going out there and observing species but there will be nice days amongst the grey damp autumnal ones. Use these nice days to blow the cobwebs out of your hair ("if only I had some" I hear my other half shout). Autumn may bring the opportunity to see different species, winter visiting birds, autumn moths or maybe plants/insects that you cannot see when the grass is so tall in the fields. Make the most of the pleasant autumn days!

Very soon we will be receiving professional guidance from Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust (SRWT) on what and how we should be monitoring species on and around the Fields. This is part of their Data for Nature project and helps both ourselves and SRWT to better understand the biodiversity changes over a longer timeframe in Owlthorpe and wider Sheffield. We will be receiving training to guide us in how to do this. However, given the Covid-19 situation this is likely to be online over the winter, at least for the time being.

Please carry on submitting your observations. It doesn't matter if they have been recorded before as nature doesn't stand still and we need to record species population changes as well as just what is there.

Posted on 13 de setembro de 2020, 10:09 AM by vetch10 vetch10 | 0 comentários | Deixar um comentário

16 de agosto de 2020

Mini bio-blitz

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.

Posted on 16 de agosto de 2020, 08:53 AM by vetch10 vetch10 | 1 comentário | Deixar um comentário

07 de agosto de 2020

Greetings

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.

Posted on 07 de agosto de 2020, 11:48 PM by vetch10 vetch10 | 2 comentários | Deixar um comentário

01 de agosto de 2020

July 2020 Update

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.

Posted on 01 de agosto de 2020, 06:44 AM by vetch10 vetch10 | 0 comentários | Deixar um comentário