Field Trip to Cliff Pools
Today I went on a field trip to Cliff Pools. This was the first field for Year one. I wasn't expecting my tutor to drive us to the area on the journey in a minibus. Only one student of our 5 didn't attend, but it wasn't surprising.
When we arrived at the car park, we found various plants such as Nettle brambles and Goats Rue, as well as Alexanders.
There were also plenty of insects at the park, common ones such as dungflies and hoverflies. The hoverflies were interesting as they look like bees and pretend to be them but are just like normal flies. I did find a couple of ladybirds.
As we walked down the road to the entrance of Cliff Pools, there was a fly-tip at the side of the road. Unfortunate, I did bring a grabber and gloves, but we really weren't there to clean up litter, or we would've been there all day.
We could hear Seagulls, Old Man's Beard and Great tits in the sky, but without the app that my tutor talked about, I can't quickly identify which is which.
Our group saw a budlen tree damaged by the storm that I remember experiencing a few weeks ago.
Our tutor got a hold of a bumblebee, the first of many on our trip. It was a Goldenfoot Bee. Our insect sightings included multiple Tortoiseshell butterflies. Our trip was given a couple of tubes to test bodies of water, but in the end, there was only one test committed, and that was at the end of the trip by myself. I believe that this kind of science is a "get your hands dirty" kind of science. It was done so late and at another location because of what was assumed to be an algae bloom, which meant the water may be toxic to our health.
When we arrived at the pathway, the first thing noticed was that the sign to describe the rules was actually shot. That was disconcerting. There seems to be a disregard for the rules in this nature reserve.
We were introduced to rebeds that were wet.
We were told this was a habitat for frogs, newts and water moles, but we didn't see any. But I did see plenty of rabbit droppings around the area, and we managed to spot a rabbit or two. These little animals are terrified of humans, so they will bolt for safety if they spot us.
Our next bumblebee was a Buff-tailed Bumblebee or Bumbus Terrestus; on her back was a collection of mites piggybacking.
As we reached the grassland to see a cargo ship in the distance, we saw a couple of walkers with half a dozen dogs of various breeds.
The next butterfly was a Small T shell butterfly.
I saw a couple of snails on the trip, usually hiding underneath things.
I looked at several plants, such as Hawthorne trees and Red dead metal.
Our next bee was a Hairy Footed Bee.
Our other tutor talked about trees coated by lichen
I noticed a red and black Rove Beetle that was something I'd never seen before. On the next sight was a large body of water with tiny islands that Black-headed Gulls used the islands as a place to make nests, allowing them to reproduce. Other birds we saw were geese and magpies and grebes, great crested bees and mallards.
Other places we checked out were a Flood defence wall, a warm gravel pit and a former chalk quarry.
The warm gravel pit was attractive as there were the remains of a fire which must have been done illegally. I would've thought this place wasn't suitable habitat for creatures. I was wrong, of course. (My finger got in the camera's way.)
The next bee we found was a garden bumblebee.
Another highlight of the trip was some violets, and I was convinced by the pictures we were given that they were hairy violets. In reality, they were sweet violets. Don't judge a flower by the photographs. Instead, follow the descriptions.
We ended the first part of the trip with a Hillview of the reserve.
The pathway had a former bird watch hut pulled down, and the chairs were thrown over the fence. That wasn't a good sign for me.
There were countless midges around the pathway, tiny pesky insects, but at least the spiders won't be hungry, as there were spider webs filled with them.
Then we found a Bee hotel, a wall of dry soil in which bees had drilled holes inside the wall to make nests inside them. To be precise, I actually caught a female queen bee, an Andreana Dorsata bee. A rare thing to achieve, according to my tutor.
Other bees included a Hairy footed flower bee.
We passed by a bird box numbered 26
Then on the right, we saw lots of sheep and lambs. There was no biodiversity of plants where they were. No doubt they ate them. This is what happens when livestock takes an area over. Speaking of which, we passed by a large dug up area that was going to be part of something else but wasn't finished yet. We found some metal plates that were told not to lift. These were homes for reptiles to hibernate. This was a reptile hibernaculum.
The next bee was an Early bumblebee, which is a name of a species, not necessarily a young bee.
We then found a pile of wood, which was labelled a bug hotel. My tutor disagrees that this would be suitable for bugs that need to replenish their numbers.
Then we found a makeshift Stonehenge that wasn't finished yet. This was part of the plan to get yoga practice and other rituals that I can't help but think had a Celtic origin, and I may be right or wrong, but either way. I think this was done to attract people.
The last bumble bees we found were a Red-tailed Bumblebee and a Garden Bumblebee before we reached the lake where we would test the water, or rather I tested the water to measure its pH level. Afterwards, we headed back to the campus.
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