Annual 'flowering' plant hunt to start off the recording year.
From the 1st-4th Jan the BSBI run an annual plant hunt - a great way of kicking off the new year, with the aim of spotting whatever you can in flower. This monitoring helps track the trends of our native species, in particular their response to climate change. This year had a new app to help and if you (like me) are happy with pen & paper submissions are still easy through the webpage https://bsbi.org/new-year-plant-hunt
The local BSBI group held a get together in a car park in Wellingborough as led by the wonderful Brian Laney - proving you can record anywhere! We were inspired, and in the first day back for the new year the team and our colleagues from the wildlife trust took a bit of a longer lunch to get out and join in!
We each set off in our local patch, 30 mins, eyes to the ground to see whatever we could find and add to the national scheme. We are all at differing levels of ID skill so on returning back we helped each other with ID and submitted the records. The BSBI also have experts on hand to help with any tricky IDs.
Collectively we found and could ID, Shepherds Purse, Pineapple Weed, Ivy-leaved Toadflax, Red Dead Nettle, White Dead Nettle, Dandelion, Groundsel, Daisy, Yarrow, Mayweed, Germander Speedwell, Periwinkle all in flower by the side of the road. We also have some photos still to check with our local BSBI group.
A lovely challenge to get out and notice the new life around us!