Diario del proyecto Big Forest Find: Bedgebury Pinetum

Just a reminder that athough the Big Forest Find events have now ended we still need your help.

As we start to look in detail at the data we’re really keen to try to increase the number of records to Research Grade, for Bedgebury there is still around 38% of to be verified.

Let's see if we can get more up to research grade before the end of the year when the final figures are taken for the project.

You can start verifying here: Verify Bedgebury Pinetum Big Forest Find

Good luck!

We’ve been delighted by the response to the Bedgebury Pinetum Big Forest Find project. This project is part of the Forestry Commission’s centenary celebrations inviting people to join the biggest ever survey of England’s forest wildlife. The Big Forest Find has taken place in the nation’s forests, with volunteers and visitors embarking on a journey of discovery through England’s wooded landscapes.

Launched in April 2019, TV wildlife presenter Michaela Strachan said;
“Forests are an amazing environment to see and hear wildlife, from birds nesting, finding food and hunting in the canopy, to the abundance of insects living on the forest floor. There's usually way more life living in a forest than is noticeable at first glance.”

From birds and butterflies to insects and plant life, the information gathered will paint a better picture of England’s forest biodiversity today. The records from the Big Forest Find and its legacy will continue to help Forestry England to enhance its forests and woodlands for wildlife, for generations to come.

We’ll be rounding up and sharing highlights from the Bedgebury Big Forest Find observations soon.

Here’s a quick set of stats:-

The first observation was a Minotaur beetle when the project opened in April!

Overall most observations: 25 Cinnabar moth & Common spotted orchids tie at the top
Birds most observations: Canada Goose
Insects most observations: Gatekeeper butterfly
Trees most observations: Scots Pine
Fungi most observations: Shaggy mane
Our favourite observation: Purple Emperor

In the meantime, the fungi this autumn is brilliant and there’s plenty more to spot out in the pinetum and forest.

The Fungi Walk hosted by the Friends of Bedgebury Pinetum on 19 October found an awesome 79 species in just two walks. We’ve seen 89 species of fungi in the project in total, with lots more that haven’t received a research grade ID yet or are classified as ‘Fungi including lichens’. If you know your fungi please do help to id those that need verifying.

The Big Forest Find project ends today. However at Bedgebury we're encouraging everyone to keep recording and join our brand new project – the Bedgebury Pinetum and Forest Find. This new project extends into the forest and opens tomorrow, 1st November.

You can see more historical data about observations at Bedgebury on the Friends of Bedgebury Pinetum Species spotted page of their website.

And finally

We’re establishing a brand new volunteering group at Bedgebury – the Tuesday Conservation Volunteer Group. Find out more

Nine days of Big Forest Find activities later and the Bedgebury project is nearing 900 observations of birds, insects, plants, arachnids, amphibians, reptiles and mammals; as well as one human....

Our half term heros turned out in force! We'd like to thank our heroic volunteers who supported 16 led activities over May half term. We're going to take a deeper look at the data before summing it up here. The project is live all the way through summer until October. Therefore we want you to keep listening, looking, and studying the wildlife at Bedgebury National Pinetum and add it to the project!

In the meantime, as it's Volunteer Week, we'd like to celebrate the current successes of this project.

We have a huge contingent of regular volunteers that dedicate hours of their time each week to complete the laborious hand removal of weeds, mucky mulching and carefully caging young tree specimens. They carry out vital work to conserve and protect a variety of habitats in the pinetum to care for our endangered tree species. For May half term we welcomed 25 Big Forest Find volunteers to the fold as facilitators, data experts or wildlife experts. Their enthusiasm was fantastic to witness on walks, activities and based at our Visitor Centre and entrance. They were sharing knowledge on discoveries and encouraging others to get excited about recording wildlife to help conservation in action.

A big thanks goes to our partners to deliver the events too! Wildlife and conservation organisations sent experts to contribute to the fantastic level of data that we're now collating:

South East Rivers Trust
Kent High Welad Partnership
Kentish Stour Countryside Partnership
The Amelia, Tunbridge Wells
Forest Research

Highlights of the first nine days recording are not, for us, the rare or engangered species spotted. You can check out the Friends of Bedgebury Pinetum website bedgeburypinetum.org and visit their wildlife pages for lots more information on that and previous years records...

We've enjoyed hearing yelps of surprise as new discoveries are made; and seeing groups of young and old stood stock still in complete awe gazing at the tree tops. Another highlight must be the many well attended bird walks for all the family, and it was a pleasure to watch really young visitors using binoculars to spot 'baby' greater spotted woodpeckers being fed in ancient oaks. Furthermore the bat walk finished by the calm waters of the Visitor Centre lake in the dark with a specacular show of numerous bats flying against the deep azure sky. Back during our open hours it was brilliant that our butterflies took second spot beside the day flying moths and their beautiful patterns in the recorded observations count. Take a look at the striking Cinnabar moth - currently sixth most recorded species in the project!

Cinnabar moth by @bfletcher7

Our learning team dressed up valiently as a ladybird and a bee so that little ones could start the 'Spot that bug' drop in sessions with a hint of what they might find. Dragonflies, damselflies and mayflies emerged in the sun near the lakesides, which gave our experts the first sightings of some species this year, such as the four spotted chaser dragonfly. And last but not least, the Bedgebury tree team led a walking tour of the nursery behind closed gates. There were entertaining stories of trips to Japan collecting wild seed and how donuts are being trialled as the next new way for gardens to reduce stress on young plants in dry periods (of course they're water, and not jam, centred donuts!).

We're excited to find out more about the wildlife as the seasons change and more records are submitted! Thank you to everyone that's been spending time observing our wildlife, volunteers and visitors alike. Not forgetting a huge thank you to those helping from afar by verifying records and making identification suggestions. We hope to spot you in the pinetum one day too.

Keep up the excellent citizen science!
Thanks from the whole team at Bedgebury National Pinetum, Forestry England

And we’re off!

Big Forest Find activities began this bank holiday weekend and the project has over 500 observations recorded across 263 species. Mallards currently top the list as the most commonly seen. This is not entirely surprising; our Visitor Centre sits on the edge of one of many lakes and waterways at Bedgebury! We’re excited to see that 50 people are contributing to the project records so far. We’ve even spotted the first dragonflies of the season and a sighting of a rare butterfly, the Grizzled Skipper.

Saturday began with the aquatic wildlife walk led by Dean from the South East Rivers Trust. Highlights included the toad rush a tiny plant that grows on bare, moist soil and is common on pond margins, a four spotted chaser dragonfly and a small copper butterfly . Plants included reeds, rushes, grasses and clover. The large silver Y day moth and a thick legged flower beetle were also found in the pond margin habitats explored.

In the pond life safari activity with the Kent High Weald Partnership and Kentish Stour Countryside Partnership lots of damselfly and dragonfly larvae surfaced. We recorded tiny newts, some great diving beetles and larvae plus water boatmen (greater and lesser). Lots of families stopped by to try out pond dipping and a leech attracted a lot of attention.

Dragonflies, damselfies and a sialis alderfly were emerging in the latter part of the morning and afternoon as the sun shone.

On Sunday David, a Bedgebury volunteer, led a walk focused on bird song and saw or heard 21 different species. A spotted flycatcher was one of the top finds.

Take a look at the May Half Term activities and walks that you can join to help you get started recording at Bedgebury. You can join in and record at any time using iNaturalist.

May Half Term special Big Forest Find walks and activities available:

🐦 Early morning bird walk, Tuesday 28 May 6am – 8am
🐦 Family bird walk Tuesday 28 May 9am – 10am
🦋 Moth ID (drop in) Tuesday 28 May 8am – 11am
🐭 Small mammal walk Wednesday 29 May 8am – 10am
🦋 Butterflies and day moths walk Wednesday 29 May 10.30am – 12.30pm
🌸 Wildflowers walk Wednesday 29 May 1pm – 3pm
🐜🐞 Spot that bug (drop in) Thursday 30 and Friday 31 May 10am – 4pm
🦋 Butterflies, hoverflies and bees walk Thursday 30 May 10.30am – 12.30pm
🦇 Family bat walk at sunset (approx. 9pm) Friday 31 May
🐸🦐 The secret life of ponds (Drop in) Friday 31 May 10am – 4pm
🌱🌲Tree-mendous nursery tour Sunday 2 June 11am – 1pm

All expert-led timed walks (not drop in) are bookable and are £3 per person.
You can also join on the day depending on availability.

Check availability and book your places at the Bedgebury Visitor Centre Information Office (open 9.30am – 4.30pm daily, book by calling 01580 879 820).