NBIS/NNNS Recorders meeting

19th March 2018

On Monday night it was off to Whitlingham ski slope after work for the annual NBIS/NNNS recorders meeting. I arrived a bit before the start time, so went for a walk around Trowse Meadow and Church Common. It was too cold for any insects, but I did notice some tiny shiny black ovals in cracks in a tree bark. Suggestions from Twitter are that these are likely to be Aphids, although a type of mite has also been suggested so I'll need to go back and have a closer look at some point. I also found Phytomyza ranunculi mines in Lesser Celandine.

Despite it nominally being part of my patch, I'd not actually been to the ski slope before. The bar looks quite nice, so perhaps I should have a better look round at some point. This year there were some particularly interesting talks, listed below in case you want to research any of them:

• How land mammals are utlising technology to keep track of marine mammals - Kathy James, Sea watch foundation
• Will DNA make recorders redundant? - Tony Leech, NNNS
• Orchards East: Traditional orchard recording in Norfolk 2018/19 - Howard Jones, Orchards East
• Garden Wildlife Health: reporting disease online - Mike Toms, BTO
• Use of trail cameras in recording - Francis Farrow, NNNS
• Citizen science and technology - Dan Hoare, NNNS
• Nocmig: sound recording birds at night - Nick Moran, BTO

In particular I would recommend checking out the garden wildlife health website, which sounds like an excellent resource.