Cofnod, the North Wales environmental records centre, and local ecological experts brought their expertise to four of ARC’s nature reserves in northeast Wales this summer to help increase the recorded biodiversity of sites in a wonderful knowledge exchange.

All four of the sites surveyed are known to host great crested newts and consist mainly of ponds, meadows, hedgerows and trees. Two of the sites are managed via a lease with Flintshire County Council.

Mandy Cartwright, ARC’s North Wales Officer said:

The aim of a recorder’s day is to dedicate time to record the flora and fauna at these sites to create a better understanding of the species present within them and how important these sites are in the wider landscape.

We discovered a variety of species from a golden-bloomed grey longhorn beetle, nursery spiders, water ladybird and was even lucky enough to find a recently metamorphosed dragonfly.

The recorder days were a success where we found many different species that hadn’t been recorded on these special sites before. We sampled various grassland areas and a compiled a full species list of what we discovered for the sites. The sites are managed primarily for great crested newts and the wider amphibian assemblage and to record all other species, especially the invertebrates demonstrates how these sites provide a home for many other living creatures.

ARC manages a number of nature reserves across the UK, and ensures that the habitat management benefits more than just our target taxa (native amphibians and reptiles). We strongly believe that this partnership working and interdisciplinary approach is the best way to ensure that the UK’s green spaces are as beneficial as possible to our wildlife.

Thank you to all those who helped to record, including Wild Ground, Cofnod and more!