Environmental monitoring results: Chatsworth data

One of our newest environmental monitoring sites is Chatsworth. Set up last year, our volunteers have been collecting temperature, humidity, and water table depth data. As it's too soon to compare yearly or seasonal data, let's have a look at these three variables together.

Thanks again to Andy Burn for producing these graphs. We look forward to seeing how this year's data compares.

Environmental monitoring results: Edale water table

In our last post we showed the monthly and seasonal average (mean) air temperatures collected by Community Science volunteers from our Edale environmental monitoring site, which is situated at about 605m above sea level on Kinder Scout.

Another variable which volunteers monitor at the same site is the water table depth - i.e. how far beneath the peat surface water sits. Thanks again to Andy Burn for producing these graphs which summarise water table depth figures for 2016 and 2017 by month and by season:

Let it snow...

Community scientists Mollie and John visited Kinder Scout this weekend to carry out the monthly downloads of data collected by the loggers on our environmental monitoring site. Their job was made more challenging (but also more fun!) by the thick layer of snow which fell there on Friday night...

Mollie surveys the scene...

As Mollie explained: "We dug through over 2 feet of snow to find the rain gauge, air pressure logger and humidity and temp logger. Luckily the auto dipwell was sticking out so we had a reference point to start our digging from!"

John connects the rain gauge logger to the shuttle

John and Mollie were rewarded for their efforts with spectacular views of a magical looking landscape...

A volunteer celebration walk

Dec 8th 2017 saw our hardy volunteers wrap up for a celebratory walk on to Kinder Scout.

What were we celebrating? Well, not just that Christmas is coming. This social event allowed us to salute Community Science's brilliant volunteers for all their fantastic efforts through the year, and also to thank them for helping the project to win this year's prestigious 'Park protector Award' - awarded by the Campaign for National Parks.

Volunteers were joined by Peak District National Park CEO Sarah Fowler, and Head of Programme Delivery at Moors for the Future Partnership - Chris Dean - who was also celebrating 15 years at the Partnership.

At the plateau, Phil from the Partnership's Conservation and Land Management team talked about some of the wider conservation work that has been happening in the area, but the -14C windchill meant the stop was short and sweet! 2017 has been a great year for the project, and the snowy views and mince pies were a perfect way to round it off.

Making conservation engaging - a volunteer view

Guest blog post by volunteer Jackie Wragg

A crucial part of any conservation effort is public engagement. Over the summer I have volunteered with Moors for the Future Partnership to aid them in this effort. Is my motivation totally selfless? Not at all. Although I take great fulfilment from raising awareness and inspiring people to value the habitats and rally for the cause it isn’t the only benefit. It’s the invaluable experience to hopefully lead me into my future career in a rewarding role in conservation. This experience is the key to my dream job!

Comma butterfly photograped at Longshaw Estate

The unaccommodating yet spendid Green Leafhopper!

Over the summer Moors for the Future Partnership performed a “takeover” of the Moorland Discovery Centre at the Longshaw Estate every Thursday. Volunteering here gave me the opportunity to set up and run a range of activities many of which were aimed at engaging children in the different species that can be found in our local uplands.

The staff are so appreciative of the help and keen to listen to new ideas and put them into practise. The chance to be part of a team setting up an engaging experience for members of the public is something I would not have access to without volunteering. Not to mention the chance to take children out on a bug hunt in the surrounding area and the opportunity for a spot of wildlife photography at the same time. I have developed a serious obsession with getting the perfect picture of the beautiful yet unaccommodating Green Leafhopper (Cicadella viridis) thanks to seeing so many of them during my time at the Moorland Discovery Centre. They’re so quick it’s almost impossible to capture their splendidness on camera!

In addition to this “Bogfest”; an event I was truly proud to be a part of. I was chosen to provide a port-of-call for visitors to this international gathering in partnership with the IUCN at the Moors for the Future Stall. This was a fantastic opportunity to network with people working within the field and also provided some experience of working to engage different audiences such as professionals and landowners.

I intend to do much more volunteering for Moors for the Future. There is no doubt that people who volunteer are valued greatly and I look forward to more events where I can be a part of the Moors for the Future mission.

Bleaklow timelapse sequence

These fixed point photos, taken over the last 13 years, show the return of vegetation to Hern Clough on Bleaklow, Derbyshire - one of the sites where Moors for the Future Partnership have carried out conservation works:

2003 - the site is largely bare peat and exposed mineral soil

 

 

2005 - after initial treatment with heather brash, lime, seed and fertilizer the grass 'nurse crop' is in evidence. Note the empty brash bags awaiting removal.

2008 - repeat treatments have allowed the nurse crop to become established, knitting the peat surface together.

2010 - the nurse grasses have almost completely covered the bare peat, and there is evidence of other plants becoming established.

2013 - the area of exposed mineral soil is noticeably reduced and there are signs of dwarf shrubs like heather growing.

2016 - the dwarf shrub coverage has increased as can be seen by this heather in flower.

Watch a video of the re-vegetation so far...

From Black Hill to Green Hill

Guest blog post by Gordon Hallas

Alfred Wainwright wrote “Black Hill is well named”. What would he say today?

These photos were taken between 1976 and 2016, demonstrating the changes Black Hill has undergone, starting with this photo taken on a summer’s day in 1976.

 

Holme was warm but our 3 children thought the breeze on Black Hill was chilly. We had visited the Holme Peat Pit (beyond the end of Issues Road) and were on our way to the wreck of a crashed Sabre aircraft. As seen in the photo the bare peat was dry and dusty and the streams running off Holme Moss were dark brown.

 

In the following years we saw test areas where pine branches, to be superseded later by geotextiles, had been spread on the bare peat slopes in attempts to slow the erosion.

 

Another summer many years later in 2000 we saw the work continue. We sat, with 2 grandchildren, on Holme Moss watching the helicopter transporting flagstones. A path was being laid across the ever widening black morass of the track from Laddow Rocks.

 

In June 2003, the new flagstone path through the re-vegetated moor made the Saturday morning walk from Crowden easier but our now grown-up children were surprised at the appearance of the cairn built round the trig point. Now revealing its base, the depth of peat lost from Black Hill was clearly visible.

Just six years later in 2009, following the spraying of pelleted seed across the moor, Black Hill was a green lawn. ‘Desecration!’ said a scouting friend; he was more accepting of the change when the moorland grasses later took hold and the vegetation was as before the Industrial Revolution.

 

Last year from the summit of West Nab, we watched the helicopter spraying its pellets on Wessenden Moor, showing the work goes on.

This June we went with our younger son and his sons to look at the Swordfish plane wreck and then to the trig point at Black Hill, what a contrast!

 

 

Wildlife photos from Crisis event - part 2

Last Friday was the second 'Creative Conservation' Community Science event with Crisis members from Sheffield. Member Steve Smith has shared this set of cracking wildlife shots he took on the day:

One of the highlights of the day was a close encounter with this roe buck near Longshaw estate

Another shot, as the roe deer makes a hasty exit...

A beautiful reed bunting seen singing in a patch of soft rush

Just one of the hundreds of millipedes all making their way along the path in Burbage Valley



A stunning meadow pipit; in a classic pose!


 

Wildlife photos from Community Science walk with Crisis members

Last Friday was the inaugural 'Creative Conservation' Community Science event with Crisis members from Sheffield -  consisting of a guided wildlife walk around the Millstone Edge and Padley Gorge area led by the Community Science team and Tom from the National Park Ranger Service, followed by an introduction to Community Science (and lunch stop) at Brunt's Barn near Grindleford.

Peacock butterfly (c) Steve Smith

Crisis member and photographer Steve took some pictures of some of the wildlife which was spotted, including the Community Science target species the Peacock Butterfly (above) - seen and recorded just below Millstone Edge.

A northern hairy wood ant nest (c) Steve Smith

Some of the other species also seen/heard and talked about were: orange-tip butterfly; early, white-tailed and tree bumblebees; willow warbler, chiffchaff, redstart, pied flycatcher, meadow and tree pipits, stonechat, buzzard, great spotted woodpecker, northern hairy wood ants, bluebells, lesser celandine, wood sorrel and birch polypore fungus (also known as razor strop) and red kite.

Female pied flycatcher (c) Steve Smith

Red kite (c) Steve Smith

Thanks to Steve for sending in these great photos, and also to everyone else involved for making it a very enjoyable day.

Picture perfect

I was very pleased this week to officially announce the winner and runners up in our 2015 photography competition. Many fantastic entries were sent in, covering the theme of 'moorland and wildlife'.

A shortlist of 25 was narrowed down to 1 overall winner and 5 runners up.

The winning image was the beautiful photo below: Malcolm Mee's shot of a short-eared owl which has momentarily perched on a moorland fence post. 

Worth the wait: Malcolm Mee's winning image

As Malcolm explained; he had been visiting the same spot for about 4 years to watch these daytime hunting owls, and finally (from his car) he snapped this suberb photo. The judges, Kate MacRae (Wildlife Kate) and Paul Hobson praised the golden light, and the use of the background moorland which put the owl into context with its landscape.

To read more about the winning picture and see the runners up; please visit our website.

The wettest month ever

One of the variables which is recorded on each Community Science Environmental Monitoring site in rainfall level.

To do this, volunteers install an automated rain gauge. This works by channeling water which falls on the surface of a bucket down a funnel into a tipper mechanism. Each time the tipper fills, an automatic logger records 1 'event'. Each event (i.e. tip) equates to 0.2mm of rain, so if you know how many times the tipper has tipped you can work out how much rain has fallen and when.

Inside the rain gauge -  the tipper mechanism is visible in the middle

As you may know, December 2015 holds the overall UK prize for the wettest month since records began. So how much rain did we record?

The graph below shows the daily amount of rain that fell on our site near Holme (West Yorkshire) throughout December - downloaded from the rain gauge by the volunteers who look after the site.

The wettest days were the 12th and the 26th - both recording over 50mm of rain -  and as you might remember the heavy rainfall around both storms 'Desmond' and 'Eva' (Boxing day) caused extensive flooding in areas of Cumbria,Yorkshire and Lancashire - and equate to these readings.

December rainfall at Holme EM site (mm)

The total which fell on this site in December was 294.8mm, this compares to 230mm which was the average UK total for the month, and 137mm which was the figure for England. More information about December's weather can be found on the Met Office website.

BBC Countryfile hare-piece

Community Science's Hare Survey was featured as part of a wider piece about the mountain hare population in the Peak District and South Pennines on last night's BBC Countryfile.

Countryfile presented Ellie Harrison and Community Science Project Manager Sarah Proctor meeting on Bleaklow

The piece covered some background information about the hares and their adaptation to cold and inhospitable conditions (which were certainly in evidence on the day of filming), before talking about how you can get involved in our survey; and how sending in your sightings of hares can help us to understand the implications of climate change for this charming upland mammal.

Ellie and Sarah talk mountain hares, climate change and citizen science!

 The episode was broadcast on 13/12/15; and will be available on iPlayer for 30 days. To catch-up, visit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06sphxz

To take part in the survey, visit: http://www.moorsforthefuture.org.uk/community-science/haresurvey

November's Environmental Monitoring

Guest blog entry by Rowan Shand McIntosh - Environmental Monitoring Volunteer

The Environmental Monitoring site on Kinder Scout above Edale has given up its first set of results from its new data loggers.

Air humidty logger. Photo by Rowan Shand McIntosh

First stop was the moorland centre to pick up the shuttle, notepad and GPS. Setting off at around 12:00, it was a nice warm walk up in the clear November air before having a picnic lunch. Soon setting to work began by criss-crossing between 10 primary quadrats collecting ground temperature readings with the waterproof shuttle. Back and forth - it began to feel like a treasure hunt - looking far ahead of the GPS to spot the tell-tale dipwell tube to show the quadrat. 

Being engrossed in the job, it is refreshing just to be working steadily outdoors.

Stopping for lunch - the view. Photo by Rowan Shand McIntosh

After checking all the kit is still in your bag it’s fantastic to look up and take in the view after concentrating for so long. The sun is low in the sky. Long shadows in the valley and just a cup of tea before the amble back to upload the data.