Mountain hares on BBC Look North

Yesterday morning didn't look promising -  a thick fog hung over the summit of Black Hill as the Community Science team set out with Danny Carpenter from BBC Look North and Dave O'Hara from RSPB to film mountain hares for a piece about our new hare survey.

A very stealthy Danny and Dave filming a hare

Luckily, the fog started to clear as we reached one of the areas where we had seen hares previously - and hoped we would see them again. 

Pretty quickly they started to appear, but filming them proved a little tricky - as one of the UK's fastest land mammals they could exit the frame at top speed! One particularly accommodating hare, still in its brown summer coat, posed very nicely; but another hare with a patchy white 'transition' coat was very camera shy and determined not to be filmed.

Sarah being interviewed by Danny

Sarah Proctor (Community Science Project Manager) spoke to Danny about the project, why we are interested in recording sightings of mountain hares and their coat colour, and the possible implications of climate change for hares. 

Once we know when the piece is going out, we will let you know. In the meantime, if you have seen any hares and want to let us know, or you'd like more information about getting involved in our surveys, please head to our website: http://www.moorsforthefuture.org.uk/community-science/haresurvey

How to monitor a moor...

This short film made by one of our fantastic volunteers shows how we go about monitoring an area of moorland, and even includes a short cameo from a mountain hare:

You can see volunteers laying out quadrats (randomly placed squares used as a 'sample' of the moorland), installing equipment like peat anchors (for measuring peat depth), dipwells (for measuring water table) and a rain gauge (for measuring rainfall) amongst other things. Data from this kit will be downloaded monthly and used to see how the moorland is responding to climate change in the long term.

The film also shows the initial survey of the plants on the site - our volunteers answer questions like: Which species of plants are present? How tall are they? What condition are they in? Are there any signs of wildlife? This information will be collected every year to see if there is a trend or pattern of changes. 

Many thanks to Sergio for filming, to Eastern Moors Partnership and Sheffield City Council and all the volunteers who helped to set the site up. The film was mostly shot on Burbage Moor, with the hare footage captured near Bleaklow.

If you'd be interested in getting involved in moorland monitoring like this, please get in touch with us at moorcitizens@peakdistrict.gov.uk

Photo Competition - Top Tips from Paul Hobson

This year's Community Science photo competition, themed 'Moorland and Wildlife' is now open for your entries.

Black Darter by Paul Hobson

Local wildlife photographer and author Paul Hobson has kindly donated one of the prizes  - a signed copy of his fantastic book 'Wild Derbyshire' -  and will be helping to judge the competition alongside Kate MacRae, also known as Wildlife Kate.

The prizes - 2 fabulous signed wildlife books worth over £40

To help give you some inspiration and ideas, Paul has provided 7 top-tips for entrants:

1. The background is as important as the subject. More images are ruined by a poor background than any other reason.

2. Use a tripod, it slows you down and allows fine tuning to your composition.

3. Make sure you understand depth of field and f numbers so you choose the best depth of field (dof) for your image. Landscapes tend to want big dof's at F16 or higher. Portraits of animals and plants can look great at lower dof's using f numbers like 4 or 5.6

Red Grouse in a Peak District landscape by Paul Hobson

 

4. Make sure you understand the basic rule of composition, the rule of thirds. At its most basic try to get the subject to one side of your image and looking into the space.

5. Try to get away from auto and use one of the main modes like aperture priority, this allows you a far greater control over your camera and images.

6. Don't copy other images, try to be original and create a style of your own.

7. You don't need to travel far, all my best images are taken close to home because I can repeatedly visit and perfect my images.

To find out more about Paul's photography, and to see details of his new book 'Wildlife Photography Field Skills and Techniques' head over to his website.  

To enter the photo competition, please head to the Community Science website. 

 

Moor Mosses and Sphagnum Sorting...

This week the Community Science team was very lucky to be visited by ecologist Dr Ros Tratt from the University of Sheffield, who spent some time with us putting mosses under the microscope -  and putting us through our paces in the field.

We spent time separating small samples of vital peat forming Sphagnum mosses from other mosses, and then identified them to species level by looking at their typical characteristics - size, shape, colour, leaf shapes and orientations and other details which can be seen using a hand lens or a microscope.

All this activity was in preparation for our new citizen science survey of Sphagnum - The Big Moss Map, which will be launched this autumn. If you're interested in learning more about moss; why it is important and how to identify it, then watch this space...

A fly on the moor

Jane, one of our volunteer Community Scientists was out on the Roaches in the South West Peak District doing a bumblebee survey, when she came across this rather amazing insect:

Jane described how the fly had a bright yellow head, was very large (the size of a queen red-tailed bumblebee) and kept flying back to the same spot if disturbed.

We had never come across this species before, so consulted Ben Keywood, an entomologist from Sheffield Wildlife Trust, who identified the photo:

“The fly is a parasitic tachinid Tachina grossa which parasitises the larvae of Oak Eggar Moth.  Oak Eggar is a moorland day-flying moth also of huge proportions.  The moth occurs across the Sheffield moors and is bright yellow or orange.  This tachinid fly is not rare but certainly rarely recorded.  Great photo!"

Jane e-mailed us to say: "It's fantastic - I'm always learning something new and seeing something amazing each time I go out to undertake Community Science."

If you have any wildlife photos or surveying experiences you’d like to share with us on this blog, please get in touch.

What is a dipwell?

In order to measure the water table (the level of water underground) on our Community Science environmental monitoring sites, our volunteers install dipwells. These are tubes which sit vertically the peat, and are drilled full of small holes to allow them to fill with water, which can then be measured.

Tom can be seen here drilling small holes into a dipwell, to allow it to fill with water.

When a dipwell is installed, a small amount of open tube sticks out above ground level. This open hole is the fitted with a cap (see pictures below). This is not to stop water from entering, but in fact to prevent small mammals like voles from falling down the tube!

The caps must have a hole drilled in them to allow the air pressure to be equal inside and outside the tube. If the pressures were different, the water level could be affected. After a while these caps can become bleached by the sun (see photo) or even chewed up by passing animals, so our volunteers keep an eye on them an replace occasionally them when needed.

If you'd like to find out more about environmental monitoring on the moors and how you can get involved, head to our website today: http://www.moorsforthefuture.org.uk/community-science

Monitoring Marsden Moor

Yesterday saw the successful completion of the first stage in setting up a new site to monitor long-term environmental and vegetation changes on the moors near Marsden.

National Trust's Marsden Moor Estate survey group volunteers set up 30 randomly located quadrats (2x2 m survey areas) with the Community Science team and NT ranger Rob, which will be used to monitor variables such as water table, peat depth and temperature; as well as changes in vegetation.

Yellow ground-level markers (see photo above) were installed in random locations within a 100x100 m square and labelled, and dipwells - used to measure the water table - were installed into the peat. Finally the group measured the peat depth (the deepest point found was 2.74 m) in some of the quadrats.

We're now looking forward to the next step - finishing the set up and carrying out an initial survey to find out which plant species are present on the site.