Last weeks' survey highlight were these colt's-foot and black thorn in flower proving spring is well as truly on the way!
These were spotted during a Winter Bird Survey in Lincolnshire, on the survey our surveyors recorded:
- Skylark
- Linnets
- Lapwing
- Little Grebe
- Green Sandpiper
Earlier this month one of our assistants has recently attended the Bat Conservation Trust’s Surveying Bats in Trees Course and has been putting her skills into practice assisting in GLTAs.
She got the opportunity to practice using an endoscope and found these two hibernating frogs inside a tree!
This week we continue on with our biweekly CPD sessions to put a focus on training and developing the knowledge of our staff and supporting those just starting out.
Yesterday's session focussed on badger ecology, but so far topics have included River Condition Assessments, Winter Twig ID etc.
Before the new year the government announced that changes are coming to the planning system.
Developments on sites less than 0.2ha will now be exempt from BNG (this is an increase of 80 times than previous size exemptions).
defraenvironment.blog.gov.uk/2025/12/17/p...
Here's a lovely example of an unexpected sighting on one of our emergence surveys last summer. This fox was spotted thanks to the use of our thermal cameras, a tool we have recently found useful on bat surveys to pick out bats, especially in cluttered environments.
This curlew was spotted near the Humber Estuary last week by one of our ornithologists on a day-time tidal bird survey.
Curlew are the largest British wader and have a characteristic long curved bill.
