Hi, I’m Tegan and I’m a volunteer placement with the Carbon Landscape Partnership. I am currently studying Ecology & Conservation and have taken a year out between my 2nd and 3rd year at Nottingham Trent University to gain some experience in my desired field of work before I graduate. Following on from Daniel, who has done an amazing job at these monthly updates but has now gone back to his studies, I will be taking over the monthly updates as well as the weekly social media updates.
This month centered a lot around the rare Bog Bush Cricket. I spent a day visiting Cadishead, Holcroft Moss and Pestfurlong Moss to collect two male and two female adult Bog Bush Crickets from each site. These were taken for a short while whilst the female laid a good amount of eggs and then the adults were returned to the same locations that they were collected from. This was all part of a project led by a Ph.D. student, who aims to reintroduce Bog Bush Crickets into surrounding restored peatlands. Not long after this, I spent the day walking Cadihead & Little Woolden Moss helping conduct a Bog Bush Cricket survey, this involved checking whether or not they were present in areas along a transect using either a bat detector to pick up on the males chirping or visual sightings. These were great projects to get involved in and I learned so much about a species that I had previously never heard of.
I have also been spending time on Wigan Flashes helping with site maintenance activities such as path clearance, removal of giant hogweed and replacing fence posts on Lightshaw. I got the pleasure of installing some beautiful memorial benches at Whitehead Hall Meadow. All of these sites are new to me and so it has been great to get to know each area and meet the people involved. I have had the chance to sit in a public meeting for the proposed NNR (National Nature Reserve) declaration for Wigan Flashes and Pennington Flash. This was such an interesting meeting to be a part of and I am looking forward to seeing the outcome of the declaration.
Overall, I am enjoying my placement with the Carbon Landscape Partnership so far and I am loving all the amazing opportunities that I can be a part of. I can’t wait to see what I get up next month!
