County Recorder Report
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COUNTY RECORDERS’ REPORT 2017 WILTSHIRE & SWINDON Edited by Gareth Harris WSBRC Biological Records Officer March 2018 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction, Gareth Harris .............................................................................................................................................. 3 WSBRC Update – the team! ............................................................................................................................................. 4 Figure 1 Total Species Records by Year & Cumulative Total .................................................................................... 5 Figure 2 Records held by WSBRC as of March 2018, by taxon group. And as % of total ......................................... 6 Figure 3 Records Held By Taxa ................................................................................................................................. 7 County Recorders’ Annual Reports .................................................................................................................................. 9 Amphibians and Reptiles, Gemma Harding ................................................................................................... 9 Bats, Gareth Harris ....................................................................................................................................... 10 BIRDS, NICK ADAMS ..................................................................................................................................... 12 diptera, Anthony Bainbridge ....................................................................................................................... 13 Higher Plants, Sharon Pilkington ................................................................................................................. 14 Macrolepidoptera, Dave Brotheridge .......................................................................................................... 17 Mammals (excl. bats), Gareth Harris ........................................................................................................... 18 lepidoptera, MIKE FULLER ............................................................................................................................ 20 Odonata, Steve Covey .................................................................................................................................. 22 Coleoptera, MARC ARBUCKLE ...................................................................................................................... 25 Sawflies, K. John Grearson ........................................................................................................................... 29 Geology, Isobel Geddes ................................................................................................................................ 30 This report and any additional reports not included here can be downloaded from the WSBRC website via the link - http://wsbrc.org.uk/wildlife-recording/county-recorders/ Front Cover: southern migrant hawker © Damian Pinguey, rugged oil beetle © Marc Arbuckle, slow worm © Gareth Harris, and juvenile adder © Gareth Harris 2 INTRODUCTION, GARETH HARRIS Once again, I am delighted and excited to present the latest annual report from Wiltshire’s county recorders, for 2017 – where else do you get such a superb overview of the recent advances in our knowledge and understanding of the county’s flora and fauna? Where else are you better able to understand the vast amounts of time and commitment that Wiltshire’s recorders, county recorders and recording groups, expend in doing so? And the achievements and the advances are many and varied and, in many cases, breath-taking. Once again, the annual report highlights the breadth of biological recording activity in Wiltshire and the committed experts undertaking and coordinating such work. In a short report, of course, it’s not possible to highlight ALL of the time expended by the county’s committed recorders; or the time taken to coordinate and train surveyors or the time taken in verifying the large volumes of data being generated in the county. In many cases the work of the county recorders is truly Herculean but undertaken behind the scenes! But your efforts ensure a smoother data flow in the county and as time goes on data flow gets better and better, year by year, with more people sharing their data and greater volumes of verified records available to be used. THANK YOU to you all, and your respective groups, for all your time and effort in 2017. We are immensely grateful for your time and energy – we spend a lot of time saying thank you, so much so that I wonder if there is a way of expressing greater, elevated thanks. There has also been some tremendous recording activity in the county in 2017 by professional consultant ecologists of whom increasing numbers submit their data to WSBRC, usually directly, increasingly through Living Record and iRecord’s The Consultants Portal. Significant datasets have been received this year from the A303 Stonehenge Bypass (from the Atkins-Arup JV who lead on ecological assessments in 2016 & 2017), which includes large volumes of data relating to vascular plants, bats, birds, badgers, with more to follow (terrestrial inverts etc). The joint project with Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) continues to bear fruit, including capturing large volumes of historic data as well as receiving more recent datasets from consultant ecologists working on Salisbury Plain. The efforts of members of Salisbury Plain’s conservation groups continue to be immense and the contributions of recorders such as Mike Lockwood (brown hairstreak and other invertebrates), Iain Perkins (fairy shrimp and common toad in ephemeral pools) continue to completely change our understanding of how these species use these landscapes, providing a worthy reminder that Salisbury Plain is an important wetland habitat! Last year we celebrated approaching our 2 millionth records – this year, thanks to everyone’s efforts, we are approaching our 3 millionth record! But more importantly, we celebrate everyone’s role in achieving this – from those at WSBRC who manage the database day to day, to those capturing and importing the records from a zillion different sources, to the verifiers and county recorders who help us maintain high data quality, to the folk who coordinate surveys and collate the data, and of course, those who spend vast numbers of hours, each year, in varying weather conditions, often during unsociable hours, to survey and monitor a diverse range of species and habitats. Not only is this a team effort, but the majority of the team are unpaid volunteers, many of whom have survey and identification skills far beyond the “professionals”. And that if course is the irony of biological recording in the UK; it is underpinned by the unpaid experts and surveyors. The biological recording landscape in the UK continues to grow, develop and improve, but in doing so, it often feels like it becomes increasing complex, with a proliferation of new recording tools, smartphone apps and websites, all generating increasing volumes of data. Consequently, the greatest pressures are perhaps most evident in verification, with the team of verifiers increasingly feeling a growing burden, as increasing volumes of data require expert verification. A lack of verifiers willing to adopt resources such as Living Record places additional burden upon the LERCs (requiring us to manually access and download data and share with verifiers to ensure they may be 3 verified and used) whilst also leaving recorders frustrated when their records seem to languish online, unverified for prolonged periods. It’s unfair to place increasing burdens on existing verifiers/county recorders, many of whom are already under strain, so we need your help in identifying additional verifiers, perhaps deputised by the county recorders, to assist in the verification process. We decided in 2017 that, going forwards, we would encourage use of iRecord for more obscure/under-recorded taxa, since iRecord is at least favoured by many of the national verifiers (in part because photos can be uploaded). During 2017 and early 2018 therefore, we stepped-up efforts to harvest key datasets from iRecord. WSBRC had an incredibly busy 2017 with further staff changes (detailed below) and a further contraction in core funding – and yet we still delivered a huge amount of work. It’s clear that 2018 will be another challenging year; from the recruitment of a new centre manager, to meeting the needs of the new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), to meeting shortfalls in funding. And of course, the huge anticipated changes in the environment sector resulting from Brexit. A year ago, I asked you to imagine Wiltshire without a county biological records centre – how will your data be used to safeguard habitats and species, to inform reserve management or development schemes or policy frameworks? How will data relating to sensitive species and sites be stored and safeguarded, to prevent disclosure to the wrong people whilst ensuring it informs the right people? Who will collate and manage this vast evidence base, that grows year-on-year? And this is why we need you, your ongoing support and for you to act as our advocates. We all do what we do because we care passionately about our natural environment in Wiltshire. Thank you again for all your help in 2017! Now, I wonder which species will comprise the 3 millionth record