I don’t know about you but my sense of time is all out of whack at present! Somehow we have managed to get through our second year of surveying under covid restrictions with minimal cancellations. (For details of last year read this blog). Many thanks to all our volunteers who have helped with surveys this year, especially the Activity Leaders, and also to those of you who haven’t been able to get back out yet. We really appreciate your support and understanding and hope to see you again soon.

With a bit more understanding of how covid spreads, and internal procedures already in place to minimise it, we were better placed this year to carry on as near to normal as possible. The 2021 surveys started with the wintergreen man orchid hunts in February, as we were still in lock-down these just involved WTBCN staff, but we managed a record count of 576!

In March, many of our Breeding Bird Surveys were able to start again. Since the bird surveys are mostly done by one person, don’t require any equipment sharing, and are outside in early mornings when reserves are less busy, they were a good place to start with getting volunteers back into action.

In April we started the slow worm surveys with our regular volunteer Sharon, this is an important survey as it marks the 11^th year since slow worms were translocated to Totternhoe from the route of the Luton-Dunstable Guided Busway. We were meant to do a 10-year survey last year but the first covid lock-down put paid to that. We were also able to trial our new Woodland Condition Monitoring in April and May working with Reserve staff to ensure we’re capturing information that will influence management decisions.

May saw the start of the Ecology Group team surveys with the dormouse box checks, dormouse footprint tunnels and bat transect surveys. We’ve had regular bat surveys at Flitwick Moor, Arlesey Old Moat, Sharnbrook Summit, Brampton Wood and Pitsford Water this year. We’ve also trialled some new static bat detectors which record bats as they pass by, although the files are still awaiting analysis.

We have managed to get all the required dormouse box checks done to feed into the National Dormouse Monitoring Programme and have had footprint tunnels up at Old Sulehay as well as a couple of Forestry England woodlands in Northamptonshire. Whilst many volunteers were now vaccinated obviously our wildlife isn’t and the risk of passing covid to wild mammal populations still exists. For this reason the dormouse box checks this year have all been carried out under the same strict restrictions as last year – minimising number of surveyors, wearing face masks, cleaning hands between each box and minimising contact time with animals. Unfortunately this meant many of our regular volunteers haven’t been able to come out this year, I sincerely hope next year we can open up the surveys again.

June saw the start of the summer flora surveys. Working with Reserves Staff again, we were able to complete our grassland monitoring programme; surveying 37 grassland units in 13 reserves across the three counties. Most of these were repeat visits. We’re still analysing results but so far, comparing with what we found at the same sites 4 years ago, most are in similar or better condition. It’s great to have some positive feedback showing the hard work that goes into reserve management is paying off. Ecology Group volunteers helped us find and count flowering orchids at Totternhoe and also to monitor the turf-stripping trial plots at Cooper’s Hill, ten years after the first one was dug.

In July & August our aquatic invertebrate volunteers joined us for surveys at sites we wanted to know more about. Visits to Dogsthorpe Star Pit and Ditchford Lakes and Meadows resulted in a number of rare water beetles being recorded. Both sites are important for these under-recorded species groups, and we couldn’t survey without our expert volunteers.

In September we finally welcomed the Ecology Group Office Volunteers back into Cambourne! We have very much missed their help over the past two survey seasons and now have a backlog of datasheets, maps and sonograms for them to get stuck into…

All our work was carried out whilst keeping a safe social distance wherever possible, cleaning hands and equipment regularly and only attending if no reason to suspect you might have covid. Each task was individually risk assessed to ensure it could be carried out safely.