The Great South Hams Bioblitz

Wildlife is quietly slipping away the world over and faster in Britain than almost anywhere else. Here in the South Hams we still have some amazing habitats and lots of extraordinary fauna and flora but if we want to protect it then we need to know what we’ve got and where it is.

To that end we’ve launched the Great South Hams Bioblitz and it’s got off to a roaring start!

We’re working parish by parish and our tool is an extraordinary little app called Obsidentify. You can find it in the App store and it’s completely free.

Simply register with it, remember to allow it to use a your location information and away you go.

It does take time for the website to update but your sighting will appear there along with the location, time and date, common and latin name and the name of the observer.

Equally if you are in any other area where we’ve set up a Bioblitz then any observations you make while you’re there will be added to their list and map.

The criteria for what you add is pretty simple – basically anything that hasn’t been planted or brought in. So no pets or garden flowers but if it’s not native but self seeded then add it, we want to know where invasive species are too.

At the end of the 12 month cycle all the information will be shared with the County Recorders for each species group.

In the three weeks since we started the Great South Hams Bioblitz some parishes have already identified over 400 individual species – imagine what it’ll be like by the end of the 12 month cycle! If your parish or town hasn’t been included yet, and you’d like to join in, then let us know and we’ll create a Bioblitz for you.

If anyone has any problem to get it working then you’re welcome to contact me on johnhabitatgroup@gmail.com and we can sort it out.

Citizen science at it’s best, happy clicking everyone!