2-4 June 2011

Scarborough, Spa and South Bay

This BioBlitz is your chance to get close to the animals and plants of Scarborough. Join the naturalists and be amazed by how much wildlife surrounds you; our aim is to find over 1,000 different species. To do this though we need your help. You can go exploring with naturalists who will give you tips on where to look and help you identify what you find.

You can also help by looking for wildlife in your own garden or park in Scarborough and recording what you see. We are especially interested in an unusual slug, the shield slug. It’s unusual because it has a tiny shell on its tail and believe it or not it is a gardeners friend, rather than eating your plants it eats other slugs!

Come along and help make this the biggest and best Natural History event in Yorkshire

EVER!

Scarborough Environment Fair 4th June 2011

Based in Scarborough Spa, over 20 wildlife groups will have stands and displays. Most will be running their own activities. There will also be wildlife activities in the Parks and at other sites around Scarborough.

Scarborough Garden Wildlife Survey 2nd-4th June 2011

Help us get an even better picture of where the wildlife of Scarborough is during the BioBlitz. All we ask is if you live or are staying in Scarborough spend a short time watching the wildlife in your garden or one of the many parks and record the birds and other animals you see. The only limit is you must have seen the animals between the 2nd and the 4th of June for them to be included in the final BioBlitz count.

You can send in your records or even better bring them along to the BioBlitz and they’ll be included in the tally of species.

The Great Shield Slug Hunt

When is a snail not a snail?

When it is a slug . . . . with a shell!

The shield slug (Testacella scutulum) is a wonderful creature, not only is it a slug with a shell on the end of its tail but it is also carnivorous, it eats other slugs!

This gardener’s friend is found throughout England but the largest number of recent records are from Scarborough, we want you to go out looking for these amazing slugs and tell us where you find them. You don’t even have to go very far as they appear to love gardens, being found under rotten wood or in compost. Send in your sightings (with a photograph if possible) or better still put your slug in a box with some damp kitchen towel and bring it along to the BioBlitz. If you have any other slugs or snails in your garden or local park, bring them along too and the Conchologists (snail specialists) will identify them for you.

What can you find around Scarborough? - Paula Lightfoot found this velvet swimming crab in a rock pool.

Draft Programme of Events - see this for the latest ideas on what will happen when.