Shropshire Wildlife Safari

Shropshire Wildlife Safari

3 families had great success last week as they went on Safari here to find the BIG 5 in Shropshire.

Tasked with spotting the Emperor Dragonfly, Poplar Hawk Moth, Yellow Neck Mouse, Badger and Peregrine Falcon over the week, the nature loving group aged 7 – 70ish, set forth and explored the meadows of Colemere, the Nature Reserve of the disused quarry of Llanymynech, the hedges, woods, meadows and ponds of Preston Montford and the whirling underwater currents of Cardingmill Valley stream. 

The eagle eyed safari group spotted 4 of the big five within the first day, with stunning views of the Emperor Dragonfly ranging his way over the Darwin pond, 2 yellow neck mice in our Longworth Traps and a Poplar Hawk Moth nestled in the moth trap, amongst a plethora of smaller moths. 

Then the safari bus took the group to Llanymynech Rocks where the Peregrine Falcon gave us a splendid display: screeching; posing on the edge of the cliffs and wheeling in flight over the quarry. 

 Three days to go and we had only a badger left to spot. Tantalisingly, the group found 2 scats within the grounds of Preston Montford. The Education team, delighted with this new discovery, set forth to find more evidence and filmed the scat site overnight. It was a long shot, operating without BBC Springwatch camera technology, and sadly, our lack of night vision cameras meant we couldn’t see a thing. 

The only thing left to do was to observe a nearby site with extensive freshly dug excavations. The group arrived before dusk, settled down and made a sterling effort to sit as still and silently as possible. The effort paid off. An hour later, 3 badgers came out and scuttled off on badger business. It was just a glimpse, but enough for us to silently cheer our BIG 5 well and truly spotted! 

Other safari highlights included:

Field voles found living in the tree nursery on the drive; pipistrelle bats heard chattering in Head Office; springtails discovered jumping in our pitfall traps; leeches squirming and suckering under the microscope; blackfly larvae dancing in the current at Cardingmill Stream; finding our inner dentist as teeth were extracted from skulls in barn owl pellets and hiding buff tip moths on birch trees. 

Sarah Anstis-Smith & Angela Munn

Tree Trail for adults

A more advanced Tree Trail is now available at FSC Preston Montford. Building on the success of the Junior Tree trail it leads users around the centre estate  providing information about significant trees in the grounds.
The adult tree trail can be obtained from the Education team office at the Centre and is supported by a display about woodlands in the Darwin building 

Adrian Pickles

OU Soils and Vegetation course

Open University students have been working on new field course "SXE288-Vegetation and Soils in the Field"

First evening on Preston Rough examining a soil core

After an evening at Preston Montford of soils, vegetation and GPS  students developed their skills of plant identification and soil description high on the Long Mynd above Church Stretton. This was followed up with laboratory work on soils chemistry and physics and matching the plant communities to the National Vegetation Classification system.

Looking North across Carding Mill valley to Caer Caradoc and the Wrekin

Identifying and estimating abundance of plants

Soil profile from Long Mynd grassland-almost a podsol

The final couple of days involved students developing hypotheses and collecting data to study relationships between plants and soil at Stapeley Hill.

South towards the phacolith of Dolerite that forms Corndon Hill

Bob's bottles and bags-an organised set of samples ready for analysis

After final sessions plotting sites using a GIS system, analysing soils, dealing with data and discussing results students went home to write a report as part of the assessment process for the whole course.

Discussing results

A good time was had by all...Good luck with writing up..any queries please get in touch
More photos available at URL; bit.ly/OUfiles




Adrian Pickles

Lichen list for Preston Mntford

Lichens with FSC and British Lichen Society at Preston Montford

Mark Powell and his group identified 67 species of lichen on the FSC Preston Montford site on a single day course on June 23rd. 

Mark's report and list of species will appear on the FSC Preston Montford Website soon; http://www.field-studies-council.org/centres/prestonmontford/reports.aspx

To go with the article here are a couple of pictures of lichen on the bridge handrail and some bright yellow stuff on some old branches.


The footbridge with handrails

The large grey foliose species is Parmelia sulcata. 

The smaller, ciliate grey lichens are a mixture of Physcia adscendens and Physcia tenella which often grow together. 

There are some large brown foliose lichens which are one of the "camouflage lichens", in this case Melanelixia subaurifera.

 

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The large yellow foliose lichen on the twig is Xanthoria parietina.

A specimen of it spent several days hanging outside the International Space Station exposed to the high vacuum and other hostilities of space and resumed growth once safely back on Earth. N.B.This is a different specimen

Now I have a question...; Do lichens exist as species, if not what units are they organised into?

Answers in comment section of blog please. NO prizes but I will know more.

Adrian Pickles with acknowledgments to Mark Powell

Tree Trail opened

Follow the Tree trail- 

For visitors with time on their hands at the Field Centre our Education Assistant team has developed a self guided trail around some of the trees on the estate. This is aimed at our younger visitors and links into an informative display in Darwin building with more detailed information about living trees, woodland and  deadwood. 

 Adrian Pickles

Keystage 1 and 2 residential groups at FSC Preston Montford- Learning Outside the Classroom

Bomere Heath, Cleves, Cranford, Eversfield,  Holy Trinity, King Henry VIII, North London Collegiate, Oxon, South Farnham, Surrey Hills and Tettenhall College have all brought junior school groups to work with us at FSC Preston Montford this spring.Every programme is developed individually for each school but there are a number of common experiences. 

Visiting the exploratorium and orienteering around the grounds have been done by practically all groups.

Natural history is usually encountered on the Centre estate in lessons around the ponds and woods. After lessons the resident snails provide a great source of interest particularly on the warm, damp evenings there have been so many of this year. The commonest snails are the banded Cepaea nemoralis which come in a variety of colours and forms.

For history and heritage the fantastic Victorian opportunities provided by Ironbridge are always a popular choice and an adventurous exploration of the Shropshire Hills feature in most programmes.

Juniors students are always enthusiastic and they certainly make the Centre come alive whether they are singing around a bonfire in the evening or making dens in the bushes before work starts in the morning

Adrian Pickles