12 and 13 July
How many living species can you find on a 240-acre nature reserve? 100? 200? perhaps.
Not just birds and mammals but flowers, bugs, beetles, dragonflies, moths - in fact anything that moves or grows. 300 then, or even 400?
Download 'BioBlitz Event Programme' here
Well, the truth is the Lower Ure Conservation Trust just doesn't know what the figure is for its Nosterfield Nature Reserve, a rich wet grassland habitat, which lies between Ripon and Bedale in North Yorkshire.
So for a 24-hour period in July the Trust is attempting to find outby invitinganyone who is interestedto come to the reserve and adjoining quarry and reedbed to help find out.
The “blitz” will start at 5pm on Thursday the 12th July and end exactly 24 hours later. “We'll begin with a guided bat walk, we have an expert on gulls who will identify as many species as possible in the nightly gull roost and we will look at how many moths frequent the area” explains LUCT director Simon Warwick.
“That'll take us close to midnight. Then of course there are all those nocturnal creatures which are active at night and we miss during the day.”
It will get even busier the following day, with guided walks into parts of the reserve which are usually closed to the public, to look for butterflies, dragonflies, beetles, spiders and flowers, with a host of wildlife and botanical experts on hand to identify those species eagle-eyed members of the public spot during the various walks.
Then on Thursday evening all the totals will be totted up to find out just how many diverse creatures inhabit Hambleton's only nature reserve,. And it promises to be more than 400!
Join us – perhaps not for the entire 24 hours but a part of it. More information can be found at http://www.luct.org.uk/events