Corfe Mullen BioBlitz 2011
Corfe Mullen in Dorset is a village on the fringes of the Poole & Bournemouth conurbation with a wide variety of habitats, including nationally important areas of lowland heath as well as having meadow, woodland and rivers. On 28th May 2011, Dorset Wildlife Trust and Nature Watch Corfe Mullen (with funding from the East Dorset Community Partnership) organised the second BioBlitz in the parish of Corfe Mullen.
A quick explanation of a BioBlitz for the uninitiated. BioBlitzes are an idea started by the U.S. National Parks Service in the 1990s and are a timed attempt to record as many species as possible in a given area. A typical BioBlitz aims to involve all ranges of expertise from complete novice through to expert. As well as providing a valuable snapshot of the biodiversity of the area at a point in time, other benefits of BioBlitzes include giving the public a chance to meet experts and learn from them and in this case, giving experts a chance to mingle and learn from each other.
The day started with the opening of several moth traps placed at sites across the parish. The weather was rather dubious and rain fell later in the day but an impressive 75 moth species were recorded. As the day progressed field trips were organised to a number of important sites across the parish, ranging from the particularly biodiverse garden of a parish resident through to Upton Heath, since devastated by a huge fire. Records included everything from blackbirds and oxeye daisies through otter spraint and mint beetles to rarities such as smooth snakes and marsh gentian. A wide variety of participants enjoyed the day and young children particularly liked the pond dipping activities, though several wet feet were noted! With experts available all the time this was a huge opportunity for everyone to learn, as well as an opportunity for experts to access sites not normally available to them.
Alex Marsh (8) inspects the moths – courtesy of N Hoar
Pond dipping – courtesy of N Hoar
Records were collated during the day using online recording tools built using Indicia. This allowed volunteers and keen recorders to enter data from anywhere with a web connection and meant that data was available online as soon as it was entered. This technology was used to provide a slideshow of incoming photos, records and other data on a projector at the village hall during the day, although of course there was a distinct preference for getting out in the field and enjoying oneself rather than inputting data straight away! The Indicia site created for the BioBlitz took only a few hours to create and continues to be available for species recording in and around Corfe Mullen. You can see some of the photographs taken on the day at http://biodiverseit.co.uk/naturewatch/bioblitz-live or a summary of the species found at http://biodiverseit.co.uk/naturewatch/species-count-summary.
Hugh Miles and John Clode with Palmate newt – courtesy of N Hoar
There is often a debate about the usefulness of citizen science records output from events like BioBlitzes. The simplicity of Indicia allowed us to capture a note of whether a record’s identification was certain, likely or just a possibility and furthermore provides tools for expert verification of records. The important point was to allow us to collect records from all participants, children through to professionals, but to then be able to filter the data according to quality as appropriate when producing report outputs. Of course new developments in tools such as the NBN Record Cleaner will help events such as BioBlitzes greatly in future. Having a number of experts available on the day meant that many species recorded were verifiable and we must not forget the enormous benefits of getting the public involved alongside experts in terms of enthusing the next generation of recorders.
John Van Breda