BSBI New Year Plant Hunt 2017 in the media: Part One

Ivy-leaved Toadflax in bloom,
Donegal 1/1/2017
Image: O. Duffy

Some early coverage of the BSBI New Year Plant Hunt in The Times today. You can read it on-line if you have a subscription to The Times. It was written by journalist Melissa Harrison who is also the editor of the very popular Winter: an anthology for the seasons.  

Many New Year Plant Hunt participants have already published blogposts on how they got on. Durham Wildlife Trust Botany Group recorded 14 species at Nose's Point, while in the west country, children enjoyed some 'wild time' thanks to the New Year Plant Hunt's similarities to Pokemon Go!

Wild Carrot blooming in Sidmouth 3/1/2017
Image: K. Woolley 

BSBI members who have published blogposts so far include Oisin Duffy reporting from Donegal where he and Mairead Crawford carried out four Hunts; ace photographer Karen Woolley whose images are also featured here; John Crellin's account of the Brecknock Hunt is here; and Dave Morris's account of his solo Hunt in Oxfordshire is here.

Craven Conservation Group even posted a video on YouTube showing how they identified Red Valerian in bloom. 

If you have New Year Plant Hunt records that you haven't yet uploaded via the new app or emailed to the team at nyplanthunt@bsbi.org then please send them through by midnight on Monday 9th January for inclusion in Kevin Walker's preliminary analysis, due out later this month. Watch this space! 

Irish recorders leading the way

Dublin Botany Group's Plant Hunt at Killiney
Image: Mies Stam

Anyone who has been following the BSBI's New Year Plant Hunt via social media or keeping an eye on the Results page will have noticed how many Irish recorders have taken part this year, from first-timers to the BSBI President, based in northern Ireland.

We've seen images of smiling botanists out recording in groups, close-ups of interesting plants spotted by solo recorders and enthusiastic comments from first-time New Year Plant Hunters.

Arenaria leptoclados in bloom (just),
Enniscorthy, 2/1/2017
Image: Paula O'Meara

All this activity is due in no small part to the efforts of BSBI's Irish Officer, Dr Maria Long, who has encouraged so many botanists to take part and has supported them throughout the process. 

Great work from Maria and the Irish botanists!

But Irish botanists don't just record plants at New Year. A new Red List for the vascular plants of Ireland was published at the end of 2016 and is dedicated to BSBI's Irish County Recorders. The foreword says:

"This work could not have been undertaken without the huge contribition made by the BSBI Vice-county Recorders, past and present, whose records, gathered both in the field and from the literature, form the bulk of the BSBI's vascular plant database... to them this book is sincerely dedicated."

You can download the Irish Red List here, follow Maria on Twitter here and keep up with what Irish botanists are up to via the BSBI Ireland Facebook page here.

Winter Heliotrope blooming at Bantry Bay, 2/1/2017
Image: Clare Heardman

The President's New Year Plant Hunt

Fatsia japonica in bloom
Glengary, Co. Wexford1/1/2017
Image: Paul Green

Today was the fourth and final day of BSBI's New Year Plant Hunt, so recording has now ceased, although records from the past few days are still coming in. The results so far are here.

We still have quite a few lists to input from people who didn't use the new on-line app: most of you liked it and used it, which saved us a lot of time this year compared to last, but some of you didn't get on with it at all. We will be making some tweaks to the app before next year, based on the feedback you've given us so far, and we hope that you'll all have a go with version two.

Meanwhile, the New Year Plant Hunt team has lists to input and identifications to check, so we'll leave you with this account by BSBI President John Faulkner:

"This year, we decided to go somewhere unfamiliar for our New Year Plant Hunt. So Gilly and I got on a train, and headed south for 30 miles to Dundalk in County Louth. Getting out into the sunshine, the station area looked bare at first sight, with most surfaces devoid of all signs of vegetation. Indeed, despite it being a Bank Holiday, a Station employee was busily scraping away the few remaining clumps of moss in one corner of the yard. Not a promising start. 

John at St. Patrick's Church, Dundalk,
searching in vain for open flowers
 on Hairy Tare Vicia hirsuta
Image courtesy of J. Faulkner 

"But as ever, on closer inspection there were nooks and crannies here and there where the herbicides, shovels, scrapers and brushes had not penetrated. Before we emerged from the station forecourt we had found 12 species in flower including a Hawkweed (Hieracium). Now, I find Hieracium is a difficult genus at the best of times, and “scraggy winter fragment with undersized tattered yellow flowers” is not a diagnostic description in any of my keys. The specimen will have to go to the relevant BSBI referee for identification. 

"In wall to wall sunshine (at this time of year the low sun really does shine more on the walls more than on the ground!), we spent 3 delightful hours wandering around the streets, parks, and any waste ground we could find. An obvious place to head for was that part of town known as “The Marshes”.  Neither in terms of botany nor of hospitality did it disappoint. Its eponymous shopping centre had the only cafe in town that was open that day, and we enjoyed a much-needed lunch and coffee there. It also had acres of flat land in various stages of development or redevelopment, and it was here we came across the best botanising, with a good collection of urban weeds, some in flower and some not so. 

Annual Mercury
Courtesy of John Crellin/ Floral Images
http://www.floralimages.co.uk/page.php?
taxon=mercurialis_annua,1

"Of particular interest to me were Keeled-fruited Cornsalad Valerianella carinata and Annual Mercury Mercurialis annua. Both of these have only one previous record for Co. Louth in the BSBI Database, and neither has ever been noted in my own vice-county of Armagh, which adjoins to the north. The former required us to reach at full stretch through impenetrable railings onto the bank a stream to pluck a small sample. 

"Fortunately, some of its tiny bluish flowers were open, and hidden among the lush green shoots were some of the fruits required for identification. Had it not been on a herbicide-treated patch of ground, it would have been tempting to munch it as the salad component implied by its English name of Cornsalad.

Dog's Mercury
Courtesy of John Crellin/ Floral Images
http://www.floralimages.co.uk/page.php?
taxon=mercurialis_perennis,1

"The Annual Mercury had me stumped at first. It is a south-eastern plant in Britain and Ireland, and I had never knowingly seen it before, despite it being relatively common some 50 miles further south in Co. Dublin. Dundalk, it seems, is on the north-western limit of its distribution. 

"Only on close examination back at home did I realise it was dioecious and its inflorescences were so similar to its woodland cousin, Dog’s Mercury.

"By the end of the day, we had found 37 species in flower and various others of interest too. From the train home, we enjoyed a wonderful orange-purplish glow from the horizon above hills of the Ring of Gullion and the Cooley Peninsula".

New Year Plant Hunt 2017: Day Three

Smooth Sow-thistle Sonchus oleraceus
Image: Karen Woolley

Day Three of the BSBI New Year Plant Hunt 2017 and botanists were out again in force across Britain and Ireland, adding new records via the New Year Plant Hunt app.

Refreshing the Results page became the new pastime for any botanist remaining indoors, ie within reach of a computer! 

The running totals as of midnight on Day Three, and compared against last year's totals, are:

229 lists received vs 432 by the end of last year's Hunt - more than half. 

Considering the foul weather which kept many of us at home on New Year's Day, that's probably what we could have expected.

Thyme-leaved Speedwell
Veronica serpyllifolia
Image: Karen Woolley

BUT only 3,569 records on those lists, whereas last year we had 9,265 in total - well below half. And many botanists doing repeat routes, often for the third or even fourth year, recording fewer than half the species they saw last New Year.

411 species vs 653 total in 2016. So:

Has the weather over the past few weeks prevented many species from flowering at New Year? 

Are there more species out there blooming away and we just haven't spotted them during the first three days of the New Year Plant Hunt?

Are there just not enough recorders out there hunting for us to get a clear picture?

The only way to find out how our wild and naturalised plants are responding to recent weather is to get out there and do a New Year Plant Hunt. 

I'll be doing exactly that tomorrow afternoon with members of my local botany group, which includes two other members of the New Year Plant Hunt team, Ciara and Richard.

Don't worry, you can still contact the rest of the team (Tom, Kevin, Ian and Ryan) if you hit any problems submitting your records. 

One prize was awarded today, the Phil Collins Tribute Award, named in honour of the 80s pop star who famously jumped on Concorde to perform at the same concert, Live Aid, from two continents. Phoebe O'Brien won the prize for recording in both England and Ireland during the 2015 New Year Plant Hunt. Botanist Joanne Denyer has gone one better and is this year's recipient:

Joanne Denyer ‏@Bryospod  Jan 2

Recorded flowering plants in England and Wales this morning - now on ferry to Dublin to make it three countries #NewYearPlantHunt

Common Knapweed Centaurea nigra
By the bus stop in Sidmouth
Image: Karen Woolley

Congratulations to Joanne, it will be fascinating to read how her accounts differ across the three countries, but as the fabulous images on this page, taken in Sidmouth earlier today by ace photographer and New Year Plant Hunter Karen Woolley, illustrate clearly - you don't necessarily have to travel too far to find wild flowers. They are blooming all over the place (frosts notwithstanding) and in many different habitats, from your local park to the seaside to that bank behind the bus stop. You just have to get out there and look - and then record your finds.

It needn't be for three hours by the way, that's just the maximum. 

Nipping out during your lunch break and recording a daisy or a dandelion will still result in a very gratifying red marker on this interactive map and more data for Kevin (BSBI's Head of Science) to get his teeth into. 

He's all ready to get started on his analysis as soon as all the data are in so please - get out tomorrow and take part in Day Four of the New Year Plant Hunt - it's your last chance until 2018!

New Year Plant Hunt 2017: Day Two

New Year Plant Hunters
at Glengarriff NR, West Cork
Image: C. Heardman

After yesterday's rain and murkiness over much of Britain, the sun came out today for most of us and the plant records started streaming in to the new Results page for the New Year Plant Hunt.

Verified records so far: 1,790, with a similar number being processed.

People are really enjoying seeing their records appear on the interactive map here. We've also had a few people asking why their records aren't on the map yet but please rest assured that they are working their way through the system. 

The day was cold for many, although not as bad as that encountered by Charles Babington on 2nd January 1854. Before he set out on a New Year Plant Hunt in Cambridgeshire, Roger Horton tweeted the image on the left.

Once at Coldhams Common with fellow botanists, Roger found some dandelions in bud, but only plants truly in flower count for the Hunt - so he put out this plea on Twitter:

Roger Horton ‏@Roger_Mhc8  Jan 1

Aging gent. botanist seeks lady sim. ints GSOH & portable hairdryer > encourage opening of local dandelions @BSBIbotany #NewYearPlantHunt

Erodium moschatum in Kerry
Image: F. Moore

We don't know if Roger managed to attract any ladies - he's not the sort of chap who boasts about such things - but he and the group had built up quite a decent plant list by the end of the day.

In Ireland the sun shone (again!) and some very nice plants were spotted, like the Musk Stork's-bill Erodium moschatum on the right, spotted by Fionn Moore on Beara. Check out the distribution map to see why Fionn and the County Recorder were so pleased with this record. 

Local botany groups were also out in force today and you can see many of their finds on BSBI's social media platforms. Links to all of them are here.

Some recorders put together composite images of their finds, like Mel (on left), who also added another list today - it's great to see how many people are following in the footsteps of Gus and James this year and heading out Hunting more than once. 

Unfortunately, some recorders are not finding anything in bloom, despite diligent searching. 

They are encouraged to email the New Year Plant Hunt team to let us know where they hunted. Nil records are also valuable and will help us build up a clearer picture of how our plants are responding to our changing weather. 

Red dead-nettle 
Image: S. Connor

13-year old naturalist and pan-lister James had a fruitless (and flowerless!) Plant Hunt in Surrey for the second year running but took the time to send us the grid ref for his nil records and also helped first time plant hunter Dara (aged 12) with using the app. 

So James is the recipient of the Day Two Valiant Effort Award, which seems fitting on the day New Nature magazine was launched to such great acclaim.  

It's been gratifying to see so many first-timers having a go at recording for the New Year Plant Hunt, and many are taking to Twitter to talk about how much fun it's been and helping each other with IDs.  

Sophie Connor, a student on the Species Identification & Survey Skills MSc course at University of Reading, was pleased to spot ten species on her first Hunt, including Petasites fragrans (Winter Heliotrope), which has been recorded 26 times so far during the New Year Plant Hunt. 

Kidney-vetch blooming in Kerry
Image: Sara Rubalcava

Three generations of wildlife lovers were out in the Chilterns and although they only found 7 species compared to last year's 15 - and no violets! - they did spot robins, lichens and some "cool fungi" and had a "very enjoyable morning".  

Terry, on the other hand, was out hunting in Oxfordshire bemoaning the measly 11 'weeds' he found compared to last year's 21. He blames a colder, drier December (and has the stats to prove it!) and an over-enthusiastic village warden. 

But we are only halfway through and who knows what remains to be spotted in bloom out there? Keep an eye on the new website to find out, and another summary will appear here tomorrow evening.

Fingers crossed the weather stays fair for day three of the New Year Plant Hunt 2017.

New Year Plant Hunt 2017: Day One

The BSBI's 2017 New Year Plant Hunt kicked off shortly after midnight and for the third year running, Oisin Duffy takes the prize for spotting the first wildflower of the Hunt - a white clover (on left seen before 1a.m. in Ireland).

When the sun came up for the start of the Hunt proper, it only really did so in Ireland, Wales and the West Country.

Much of England and Scotland enjoyed murk and rain, but fortunately many local group admins had been keeping an eye on the weather forecast and had rescheduled their Hunts for tomorrow or Tuesday.

42 lists have been published so far (ie all the records on these lists have been verified) from across Britain and Ireland and you can see them all here on our interactive map. 181 species recorded so far.

Rory, dogs, Gorse and sunshine.
Remember sunshine?
Image: Phoebe O'Brien

But it was Ireland's day, with records flooding in  - unfortunately many are still working their way through the British-based iRecord system so don't show up on the map yet. But they will.

Congratulations to Rory, Phoebe, Caroline, Eamon, Fionn, Paula, Clare, Oisin, Mairead and many other enthusiastic botanists. 

There was so much activity on Twitter that, around 8pm, we were notified that #NewYearPlantHunt was trending on Twitter in Ireland.

This is a real feather in Irish Officer Maria Long's cap. She has been doing a great job spreading the word about the New Year Plant Hunt and enthusing Irish botanists to get involved this year, including many first-timers. 

So it's great to see that everyone had such a brilliant day, great weather and lots of records generated for the New Year Plant Hunt database.

Phoebe, Claire and Rory spotted 42 species in bloom in West Cork, a great total, but it looks as though the day's star New Year Plant Hunt recorders were Sylvia and Julian Reynolds, who got 71 species in flower in Co. Dublin, including Sherardia arvensis and Geranium pusillum (on right).

The new app worked pretty well - a few glitches which of course hadn't revealed themselves during extensive testing, but people flagged any problems up quickly by emailing nyplanthunt@bsbi.org and our software wizard Tom Humphrey soon ironed them out so records could be submitted successfully. 

Mel & Gorse in Kingsdown
Image: Steve Coates 

Helen Taylor recorded Gorse in Perthshire (apparently it was bitterly cold) and then headed off to Arnside, where she went out recording again and got a few more yellow flowers. 

Mel Lloyd also recorded Gorse in bloom in Kingsdown but she didn't have quite such nice weather for her Hunt - and the Gorse next to her doesn't look nearly as happy as Rory's!

Dave was out in Kent and has already blogged about his New Year Plant Hunt and shared some great images on his Twitter account.

Botanist Laura Jennings was less successful - two hours surveying by the River Thames and nothing in bloom. Not even Gorse.

She's going to try again later in the week but for now, she is awarded the Day One Valiant Effort Award. Watch this space to find about more about Laura's (ahem) fabulous prize!

So, will the sun shine on England and Scotland for tomorrow's New Year Plant Hunt? 

For now, I'll leave you with Rory Hodd's image (above) of Thrift in bloom in the west of Ireland. In the sunshine. Sweet dreams New Year Plant Hunters!

Communicating the BSBI message in 2016

Jane Houldsworth after a meeting
 with BTO, January 2016
Image: L. Marsh 

It's Hogmanay and my first as BSBI's Communications Officer, so it seems like a good time to spill the beans on BSBI and share a few photos I managed to capture this year.

Did you know that behind every successful BSBI field meeting, conference or indoor meeting, every BSBI publication and periodical, every dot on a BSBI distribution map, stands a huge botanical support network drawn from BSBI's volunteers:

Our hundreds of County Recorders and Plant Referees.

Our thousands of members and supporters who go out identifying and recording wildflowers for Atlas 2020, leading training and local group meetings, writing papers and road-resting BSBI Handbooks and ID keys. 

Our Council and committee members, elected officers, Board of Trustees and local group administrators who give up so many hours of their time. 

Oli sits on BSBI Council and Records
 & Research Committee; Jodey sits on
Meetings & Communications Committee
Both sit on the floor after a successful
BSBI Annual Exhibition Meeting!
Image: L. Marsh 

Then there are BSBI's staff members - I'm so proud to be on this team, headed up by our amazing Head of Ops Jane 'Superwoman' Houldsworth.

There's the generosity of members who donate to help fund BSBI's work.

And of course the many partner organisations with whom we work, such as the Biological Records Centre/Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, who hosted our Annual Exhibition Meeting and developed our New Year Plant Hunt app, the Wild Flower Society who support so many BSBI projects and Plantlife, our partners in the National Plant Monitoring Scheme. 

We also benefit from the excellent work of former staff members - a shout-out here to Alex Lockton who did an amazing job setting up the old BSBI website a decade ago in a very different digital landscape. You could say the BSBI shop moved in 2016 to a bigger site with more space and we are adding some great new lines alongside all your old favourites! 

Sue Townsend (on right) of BSBI's Training
& Education Committee visits Lin Hawthorne
 at Haggewoods prior to launching 
new programme of plant ID workshops 
Image: L. Marsh  

Shout-out also to our website developer Craig Morgan whose advice and support since I've taken on looking after the website this year have been above and beyond the call of duty.

Most popular pages on the website this year were our distribution maps and identification resources, with the training, science and resources for recorders pages also attracting regular traffic. More than 1,300 people have downloaded a copy of the 'So You Want to Know Your Plants' pdf since June and the FISC Skills Pyramid is also very popular.

We are also getting the botanical message out via social media - our weekly #wildflowerhour slot has been "trending on Twitter" most weeks, as thousands of people share images of plants seen in bloom during the previous week and I try madly to keep up with them all and confirm/help with IDs where possible, or link to BSBI distribution maps, Species Accounts and New Atlas entries. 

Nick Moyes, co-author of the recent
'Flora of Derbyshire'
We bumped into each other in the field
He had Flora flyers with him!
Image: L. Marsh 

It's great fun and fascinating to see what is coming into flower across Britain & Ireland each week. More experienced BSBI members like Brian Laney and Martin Rand are also very kindly helping beginners with some of their IDs when they can. If you can help on a Sunday evening, 8-9pm, please let me know!

You may also have seen our new Get Involved page for people just getting started with botany, or read recent blogposts about the National Plant Monitoring Scheme, which is suitable for beginner and improver botanists. 

But BSBI is equally the home of the more advanced botanist, for whom we now offer updates from the Science and Training Teams, as well as reports on forthcoming conferences and research opportunities on the revamped News page.

And then there's the New Year Plant Hunt... Happy New Year botanists, here's to a floriferous 2017!