Shropshire Earthworm Blitz!

Over the weekend of 1st/2nd August the Tomorrow's Biodiversity project is organising a follow-up weekend field event to the very successful Earthworm Society of Britain field meeting which took place at Preston Montford and Powis Castle in March.

The Shropshire Earthworm Blitz will take place over the weekend of 1st/2nd August. Keiron Brown - one of the ESB trainers who ran the March event - is coming back to help us blitz Shropshire!

On the Saturday (and possibly Sunday morning) we will visit a number of Shropshire sites and carry out Earthworm sampling. The aim will be to go to as many sites as we can and do as much sampling as possible. Then on Sunday we will identify the worms in a lab at Preston Montford. The format is quite similar to the March event, except that emphasis will be on doing - so there won't be any formal lectures or 'classroom' teaching as such, however, there will be plenty of mentoring, one-to-one guidance and peer-to-peer help going on.

Earthworm sampling (C. Bell)This will be an ideal opportunity for people who came on the ESB field event at Preston Montford in March to consolidate their learning. But it is also an opportunity if you are new to earthworm recording - we will pair new recorders with someone who's done it before.

So if you came on the the March event or you are new to earthworm recording and would like to take part in the Shropshire Earthworm Blitz, please let us know by sending an email to Charlie: [email protected]. You are welcome to attend for the whole weekend or just part of it. If we get enough interest, the intention is to hire a minibus on the Saturday to take people around to the sites so please let us know if you would like a seat in the minibus.

Alternatively people can join us at one or more of the sites, as they please, by getting there under their own steam. We will be working on getting permissions to sample on a range of sites over the next few months and as we know which sites we will be sampling at, we will publish a list on this web page, so keep an eye on it. Earthworm sampling.  Photo: C.BellYou can also keep an eye on the FSC Tomorrow's Biodiversity facebook page which we will also keep updated with news of what sites we are going to sample.

People are also most welcome to bring their own earthworms to the lab day on Sunday if they would like help with identification or confirmation of identification from Keiron.

There will be no charge to participate in this event and you will need to bring your own packed lunch on Saturday and Sunday. Preston Montford may be able to accommodate those that want to stay over on Saturday night. If you want to do that, enquire directly with the field centre: [email protected] stating that you are taking part in the FSC Tomorrow's Biodiversity Shropshire Earthworm Blitz in order to get the special B&B rate of £40 for the night. (Don't forget to ask for the special rate - it's like a meal-deal in a restaurant; if you don't ask, you don't get!)