30 Days Wild | Day 14 - doing some science!

On day 14 of 30 Days Wild, I did some science! Well I made a start on doing some science. I've nearly finished my BSc in Environmental Science now, and only have my final project to work on over the summer. We have to plan and execute a piece of research investigating the effect of an abiotic (non-living) variable upon a biotic (living) variable. I am quite interested in phenology (the timing of seasonal events) so I am conducting an experiment to investigate the effect of raised temperatures (there's your abiotic variable) upon the date of first flowering (and your biotic) in the common grassland wildflower, Bird's-foot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus). My hypothesis is, not surprisingly, that plants experiencing higher temperatures will flower earlier than plants in ambient air temperatures. Bird's-foot Trefoil is an important food plant for the larvae of several butterfly species, so any shift in its flowering date, potentially induced by climate change, could have knock-on effects upon the lifecycle of butterflies which feed on its buds and flowers - some of which e.g. Silver-studded Blue are already in decline.

Bird's-foot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus), currently in flower along my canalside commute.

I'd planned the method for my experiment earlier this year, and had been growing a load of Bird's-foot Trefoil from seed in preparation. Partly due I think to the disappointing weather we've been having of late, the seedlings had taken a lot longer than I was expecting to harden off. However they were ready this weekend and the experimentation could commence! I am putting two sets of 25 plants outside in my garden; one set is inside a mini greenhouse to raise the temperature and the other is just outside in ambient temperatures - however these plants are still covered by an awning of clear plastic to protect them from rain, so I can control how much water each set of plants receives. Due to the difference in temperature and wind between the two sets, they may consume water at different rates, so I'll have to closely monitor this and try to water them taking this into account. Gotta ensure the only variable that could be affecting when they flower is temperature!

Ambient temperature - also protected (hopefully) from birds, insects etc. to some extent by netting.

Raised temperature.

I've put a thermometer with each set of plants so that I can record the daily maximum and minimum temperature from each. I need to try and make sure the temperature in the mini greenhouse is around 2 - 4 °C higher than outside, in line with climate change predictions. I made a mini Stevenson screen from cardboard for each thermometer sensor to shield them from direct sunlight, was quite pleased with those!

Homemade Stevenson screen covering the thermometer sensor!

The thermometer body inside a bag to protect it from damp.

Each plant is numbered so that once they start flowering (assuming this happens - my main concern!) I can record which ones are in flower. Once they have all flowered (fingers crossed) the experiment will be finished and I can do some stats to see if there is a significant difference in first flowering date between the two sets of plants. I might also try some different stats to see if there is a relationship between temperature and first flowering date - although as I only have two temperature treatments this might not show much of use. 

The wee plants.

Been spending a lot of time thinking about and planning my experiment over the past few months so I'm excited to finally start collecting data! I'm hoping it will go smoothly and show something interesting :o)

GOD SPEED, experiment!

Quiet but pleasant day at Spurn

It's been a while since I last did any bloggage! I had another exam a couple of days ago so the weeks leading up to that were spend cramming my brain with as much knowledge about evolution (the subject of the module I had been studying) as I could. Now that's out of the way I am very much enjoying being able to relax for a bit before I start studying my next module (oceanography!) towards the end of this month. Only that and one other module, my final project, to go then I will have finished the whole degree by this time next year, EXCITEMENT!!!!! It will have taken in total just under 6 years, I am going to feel pretty pleased with myself when the end finally comes :oD

In less exciting news (to me at least) my thumb affliction is no better - for a while it really seemed to be improving but then for some reason it got worse again. So I am still unable to recommence my daily drawing/painting, grump. Looks like I am probably going to have to head back to the doctors and get that steroid injection.

Anyway, last Sunday I decided to join the West Midland Bird Club's trip to Spurn Point, as my revision had been going well so I could afford to take a day off (well most of the day - I did take a bunch of revision notes to read on the coach). Most of the rarities of the previous few weeks had cleared off, although apparently there was a Richard's Pipit knocking around somewhere - however we didn't fancy our chances with that skulker! As our time there was limited instead we headed off to see whatever we might find. As soon as we got off the coach we saw a few Swallows, and Linnets in the hedgerows. Soon we were enjoying waders galore in the estuary - Ringed Plover, Knot, Turnstone, Golden Plover, Redshank, Curlew, Sanderling, Oystercatcher and Dunlin, along with many Shelducks and a few gulls. Closer in, a Red Admiral butterfly fluttered past too.

The Humber estuary.

We decided to stop for lunch sitting on the rock armour overlooking the estuary; just before we sat down we spotted a lovely Wheatear on the rocks a bit further down from us. As we sat eating our lunches quietly watching the Wheatear, it slowly came closer and closer giving us excellent views, before a bunch of overenthusiastic photographers appeared and spooked it away back down the bank. Blah!

Nice spot for a Wheatear.

As usual I was on the lookout for new plants to try and learn, here are a couple:

Couldn't work out what this one was - some member of the daisy family? Suggestions welcome!

Not 100% sure but I think this might be Spear-leaved Orache (Atriplex prostata)?

We continued onwards, taking in Skylarks, Reed Buntings, a Stonechat and looooads of Little Egrets. Although the sea had been quiet when we first arrived, we stopped at the seawatching hide to give it another go and saw a lot more - I spotted Wigeon, Razorbill, Gannet, Red-throated Diver and Common Gull, along with plenty of Grey Seals! As the weather was so nice though everything was far out, and I think I have mentioned previously that I lack patience/skill when it comes to seawatching. I could make out distant skuas and terns, but of what species I could not ascertain!

We walked back along the estuary path again, where by now the tide had come in, bringing the waders much closer - we added Grey Plover, Snipe and Bar-tailed Godwit to our lists, and also Brent Goose and a distant Raven flying down the estuary.

The Humber estuary, now full of water with some Brent Geese.

We bumped into another member of our group who told us he'd seen a Whinchat nearby, so Andy M and I followed his directions to the spot - Whinchat isn't a bird I get to see often and it would be a year tick. Sure enough the Whinchat was exactly where we were told it would be and very fine it looked too in the late afternoon sun.

Although we hadn't really seen anything out of the ordinary, it was nonetheless an enjoyable day in nice weather at Spurn......it had been too long since I last went out birding, and it was just nice to be ourdoors in nature having a break from working/studying/revising. Nature is the best for restoring zen-like calm and happiness if you've been feeling a bit stressed out!

On hiatus

I am going on hiatus from my drawing project for a short while (until the 8th of October to be exact). I've got a bit behind on my studying due to being away over the past 2 weekends so I need to catch up, and additionally my end of module exam is on the 8th of October so I really need to get cracking with revision! On top of that work is going to be mega-hectic this month as I'll be doing 2 peoples' jobs while my colleague recuperates from an operation (which is why I've also been a bit quiet on Twitter lately - I do most of my tweeting from work, one of the advantages of a boring desk-based job!). 

So alas, I have decided it would be best to put the drawings on hold while I concentrate on other stuff. I will be back in October though! :o)

Getting to know the calcicoles at Wren's Nest NNR

This isn't related to birding or drawing particularly, but is to my continuing efforts to learn more about plants so I thought I would write a brief post with some photos of the lovely flora I witnessed today! I spent a very hot and sunny day at Wren's Nest National Nature Reserve in Dudley, an excellent spot renowned for its world-famous Silurian fossils and limestone flora. I was carrying out fieldwork for a small project I'm doing for my Open University degree, about the influence of the geology on the plants growing at Wren's Nest.

The limestone reef mounds at Wren's Nest NNR, a brilliant spot for both fossils and plants.

One of my quadrats!

The wardens were also doing some plant ID training to brush up on their skills and I joined them for the first part of that which was very helpful, I learnt some new ones (especially grasses) and refreshed my memory of a few others. I still haven't quite managed to get my head around all the various hawkweeds/bits though, that is going to take me some time! The wardens were great and made me feel super welcome, many thanks to them! :o)

Here are a few of my favourite calcicoles (lime-loving plants) from today!

Bee Orchid (Ophrys apifera).

Common Milkwort (Polygala vulgaris).

Hoary Plantain (Plantago media).

Quaking Grass (Briza media) - my favourite!

OU field trip to the Malverns

I've had a very busy few days hence the lack of drawings. One of the things I've been up to was a field trip yesterday to the Malvern Hills, as part of the OU module I'm currently studying towards my degree. We don't get much in the way of field trips due to the whole distance learning thing, but they are always highlights - really enjoyable and anything learnt seems to stick in my head a lot better than if I'd read it from a textbook. I didn't do any drawing, no time for that! But I learnt some new plants so thought I would do a quick post about them.

We went up to the Herefordshire Beacon first and had a look at the landscape, along with info about the geology, to work out how it had influenced the surrounding landforms. The Malvern Hills are a ridge of mostly intrusive (coarse-grained) igneous Precambrian rocks that formed as part of an ancient volcanic island arc, they are some of the oldest rocks in England, AWESOME! There are also some slightly more recent (Ordovician) extrusive (fine-grained) volcanic rocks toward the southern end of the ridge, here is a cave there that has been created by quarrying basalt.

Supposedly this cave is called the Giant's Cave. I can however confirm that the person standing in it is of normal stature.

Also towards the southern end, some of the rocks have been deformed into a gneiss-type texture by metamorphism, we didn't get to see these so I really want to go back and check them out, I love metamorphic rocks!

After that we did a bit of surveying of the plants growing on the slopes, this was my favourite bit! The plants were all really small due partly to the fairly thin soil and grazing, I liked how the more closely you look, the more different types of tiny plant you could find. I don't know much about classifying vegetation types yet but it seemed heath/grasslandish, fairly neutral and dryish. Some of the plants we found there were Wild Thyme (Thymus polytrichus), Sheep's Sorrel (Rumex acetosella), Lady's Bedstraw (Galium verum), Mouse-ear-hawkweed (Pilosella officinarum) and Common Rock Rose (Helianthemum nummularium). Another group were also doing a transect down the slope to see how the soil depth varied, I had a go with the auger on a hummock near the bottom of the slope, the soil was pretty deep there!

In the afternoon we relocated to Castlemorton Common where we had a go at measuring the cross-section of a stream, and the speed of its flow, before some more plant surveying. This was more of a damp meadow, there were lots of rushes and things and some pretty confusing buttercups! I found what turned out to be a Bulbous Buttercup (Ranunculus bulbosus) while we were eating lunch, and some other plants we came across were Greater Bird's-foot Trefoil (Lotus pedunculatus), Common Mouse-ear (Cerastium fontanum), Ribwort Plantain (Plantago lanceolata) and Tormentil (Potentilla erecta).

Mouse-ear-hawkweed (Pilosella officinarum) and Heath Bedstraw (Galium saxatile).

Tiny Sheep's Sorrel (Rumex acetosella)!

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium), Germander Speedwell (Veronica chamaedrys), and Wild Thyme (Thymus polytrichus).

Common Rock Rose (Helianthemum nummularium).