Wow… What a day! The 2023 Bioblitz is over, but it’s definitely here to stay.
Sometimes, as students and members of the University community we often overlook the beauty of our surroundings – the Bioblitz is for sure a way to reconnect with this. These events are a great way to enhance our relationship with the great outdoors, while quantifying species abundance.
On Saturday 20th May, we opened our doors to students and members of the general public to participate in the 2023 Bioblitz. The day was about recording as many species as possible within 13 and a 1/2 hours, during surveys such as foraging, newt, bird, bat, and pond dipping. There were also plenty of interactive activities on offer, such as bird feeder crafting, planting veg seeds, and of course, getting some lovely face paint!
As the social media officer for this event, I was able to attend multiple surveys and appreciate the events we had on offer – I even learnt about edible wild plants on campus! As well as this, it was a great way to learn how to utilise the plants around us which is something I will definitely consider moving forward.
We had such an incredible level of engagement from everyone involved, which made for an amazing day. It was great to see how many families turned up and how much the kids enjoyed it! – Sam Maddison, Data Officer
While this event was about recording species numbers on campus, it was also really great to see our students and experts engaging with the environment as well as the general public, I believe that we definitely showed the Kentish people how great of a faculty we are and how diverse our knowledge is!
It’s brilliant to be able to inspire and teach people about our local wildlife. It was clear that the BioBlitz made such a difference to people’s view of nature – Charlotte Farmer, Impact officer
We are all so proud that this event smashed previous numbers, both in attendance and species numbers! Some of the pictures of species identified are just fabulous, here is probably my favourite:
Lastly, thank you to the Bioblitz organising committee for all their tireless work to make this event such a success: Faye Whiley, Alicia Hallatt, Charlotte Farmer, Lewis Smith, Sam Maddison, Abbie Cushion, thank you all so much for your work on this event; congratulations on facilitating such a successful event.