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.
1.If you see any plant, mammal, insect, bird, reptile, spider, etc then open the app, press on the camera symbol...
2. and take a picture of it.
3. If happy with the image press 'Use Photo'.
4. If the image is too small click the crop symbol...
5. enlarge and drag...
7. Press the identify button.
8. If the identification is certain, press 'Upload'.
Sometimes it’s quicker or easier to take the picture on your phone camera and then later you can simply open the app, press the symbol immediately above the fox’s head (like the one on the right here) and it will take you to your pictures and ask you to choose the one you want. After that the procedure is exactly the same.
10. To see your observations and all the sightings in your parish, click on the appropriate button:
Click on your parish Bioblitz and it’ll look something like this:
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!