Northamptonshire Biodiversity Records Centre We are well on our way to having this year’s data NBRC Newsletter 16 incorporated with over 75% processed and imported into the database already. Our 2018 Bioblitz at Priors Autumn/Winter 2018 Hall, Corby has proved successful with 448 species records submitted already, with 298 of these new to We have had a wonderful summer for many species in the sites, bringing the total to 629 species so far with a Northamptonshire; with new rare plant, moth and planned visit over winter by our County Bryophyte butterfly finds reported by our county recorders. We Recorder to come. Additionally, the Living Landscape are delighted to share reports from John Showers, team has conducted new LWS surveys and Nathalie is Brian Laney and David James in this newsletter. Thanks currently incorporating these and the updated to regional groups, your online submissions and our citations into our database. In addition to these newly newly engaged WILDsiders, we are building a better submitted records, James has been busy working to picture of our local natural history. improve our coverage of species – this month adding an impressive 27,000 bird records covering over 5 years (2016-2011). We are delighted to report that we are now well on our way to 1 million records in the NBRC database! To house our increasing database needs and strengthen our IT infrastructure we have invested in a new server giving us the space needed to grow. You can read all about the NBRC progress over 2017/18 in our Annual Report, which will be available on our website early in the New Year. Rosalind Johnston, NBRC Centre Manager Congratulations to our New Drone Pilots! The rules have tightened over the last few years and the CAA drone pilot test now requires a pass in the non-stabilising ATTI mode. A test for the brave! Building on their theory pass, Nathalie and Rachel James moth trapping during our 2019 Bioblitz undertook many hours both outdoors and using our held at Priors Hall, Corby – species found: Treble- flight simulator to gain the high level control required Moth Aplocera, Elephant Hawk-moth Deilephila and we are delighted to share their success! Both elpenor, and Eyed Hawk-moth Smerinthus ocellata. Nathalie and Rachel have been successful in passing This autumn we were joined by two new volunteers, their flight tests, despite the less than perfect windy joining our existing and long-term volunteers, with day. They now have permission from CAA and are whom Rachel has been working with to deliver historic successfully licenced and insured for commercial drone digitisation projects. The first, digitising and storing operation. Harry Henson’s Beetle Records and the second This November, Nathalie and Rachel went out for their digitising Wildlife Trust record cards. Volunteer first project flight to gather survey aerial imagery on an support of the NBRC allows us to ensure these records Environment Agency managed site, with two more are retained and used – strengthening our information sites due in the spring and future monitoring flights base. We would like to extend a particular thank you to planned post restoration works. James Skinner will our longest serving volunteer, Carol Wingate who, as complete further processing and we will be delivering of November, has supported us week-in-week-out for imagery for agreed projects over the next three years ten years! including the support of site monitoring and management of river restoration works conducted in National Conferences & Record key sections of the Nene valley. Centre News Our DJI Phantom 4 Pro is a professional use drone with full visual range, obstacle sensors and HD camera. We Over the last few months, we have been out-and- can use this to collect high definition aerial imagery, about, working with the wider recording and including 3D and panoramas, as well as 4K video conservation community. Starting in early October footage. We can also utilise computer software for Rosalind & Nathalie led the latest East of England Normalised Difference Vegetation Index image regional Local Environmental Record Centre Meeting production (as used to remotely analyse coverage of where we discussed our shared working practices, live green vegetation) and for orthomosaic image service provision for shared projects for the production (for whole site detailed and to scale Environment Agency and Anglian Water, and wider images) in conjunction with GIS tools. As shown by LERC developments. drone work completed by our partner, the Wildlife The following week Rosalind & Rachel joined the Trust BCN, this new tool has powerful applications for National ALERC conference in Birmingham joining habitat assessment, species surveying, and monitoring workshops on task automation & data manipulation in change. R and digital cartography using ArcGIS. Rich Burkmar https://www.wildlifebcn.org/sites/default/files/2018- shared the FSC Biolinks QGIS plugin consultation, and 11/Drone%20survey%20summaries.pdf LERCs alongside other users have been invited to raise We want Northamptonshire to feel proud of being at their feedback of this tool and any useful features for the forefront of this innovation. We are one of the first its development – you can have your say on the NBN counties to benefit from this new tool, with trained website https://nbn.org.uk/blogs/nbn-blog/qgis-is- skilled operators as part of our record centre service. there-something-missing/. Clare Blencowe, ALERC We hope this will inform & strengthen our county’s chair, shared and gained support for plans for the environmental decision-making. continuation of Recorder6, post JNCC support, funded through the introduction of an annual licence fee from To celebrate our new drone service April 2019. The charge would give users access to we would like to invite you to dictionary updates and new releases as supported by the developers. The set-up costs for a new developer ‘name the drone’! will be additional to this and crowd-sourced. Please send your submissions by the 1st April 2019, to [email protected]. We be in touch with the winner & will share our new drone name in our Spring/Summer newsletter. Ryan Clark presenting the WILDside project at the Bookings for commercial aerial photo & video NBN Conference 2018 st projects will be open from 1 April 2019. Please get In November, Rosalind and Ryan headed to in touch to discuss your needs Nottingham to the NBN 2018 Conference where Ryan [email protected] presented the WILDside project as a lunchtime stand. Prof Adam Hart opened the conference, describing his Rosalind Johnston, NBRC Centre Manager large-scale citizen science projects on wasps & flying ants, species well known to the media though not always for the most positive reasons. He utilised the 2 power of this media attention to drive recording of these groups. In the afternoon, we fed into workshops on biological recording and identification. We were delighted to learn that not only had Ryan been WILDside Update nominated, but shortlisted for the prestigious Gilbert What a summer we have had! The weather has been White Adult Award. The awards, held in the evening, extraordinary and is likely to have benefitted some celebrate the incredible recorder community and species more than others. Biological records help us to notable work being undertaken by individuals to understand and conserve the natural world around us ensure we have the underpinning biological so I am very glad to see how WILDside is growing and understanding that informs and shapes our more and more people are helping us to map out environment; a full list of the winners and runners up species in Northamptonshire. can be found on the NBN website https://nbn.org.uk/. We are now at the end of our second main field season of the project and we are getting all the records Representing Defra, Debora Boobyer described generated over the last year into our database so they indicator development for the new framework for the can be used to influence decision-making and government’s 25 years plan, as expected to be conservation in Northamptonshire and beyond. published in early 2019. Chris Gerrard shared Anglian Talks and Workshops Water’s use of the species & habitat data provided across the East of England (including NBRC data) to prioritise protection and site management of their 7000 sites across the region following ‘landscape scale’ approach. This work is expected to be shared in a future publication as well as informing ‘on-the-ground’ action. Martin Lunes presentenced the Nature Friendly Farming Network, and his fantastic work using of Bioblitzes (working with CPERC) to better inform management of their land both ecologically & for improved agricultural productivity. Following her fantastic talk on modelling ecological networks and interrelationships at a community level, Professor Jane Memmott was awarded the John Burnett memorial medal. Key talks, including Jane Memmott’s were live streamed on Facebook and are available on the NBN youtube channel. Notably during the second day, in recognition of their work with the FSC Sarah Whild and Sue Townsend were awarded Honorary Membership. Discussed at the AGM were several changes to the NBN board, including the announcement that after several years at the helm Prof Michael Hassell is stepping down as chairman. Lastly, the British Trust for Ornithology announced their support for high-resolution data sharing for Record Centre use – this welcome news will mean we can greatly strengthen our bird dataset & use of BTO data in descision makng across the county. John Wakely, vice county recorder for Bedfordshire, taking part in our aquatic plants Working with the Northants Bird Group, and with workshop, led by Nathalie. confirmed permissions, we intend to start incorporating this data into our database and update We have done a lot of talks and introductory annually.