Nature Overheard: Tune in to Your Streets

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The world of bioacoustics is booming in professional ecology surveys, however it is a complex endeavour with recording devices, and artificial intelligence (AI) to identify sounds. You may have used Merlin to identify birds, if so, you’ve done some bioacoustic surveys of your own, Cornell Lab have done an amazing job of turning bioacoustics into an app that everyone can use.

The Natural History Museum is running a bioacoustics project of its own Nature Overheard: Tune in to Your Streets.

Insects are important for a healthy environment, but noise can make it hard for them to communicate with each other. They may have to change their sounds to be heard in noisy places.  

Join the NHM on the Nature Overheard survey, collecting data to better understand how road noise affect insects. Or take part in other activities to support their research while you build your own scientific skills and knowledge.

You can join the Nature Overhead survey here. Make recordings of your local streets and submit them, alongside a biodiversity survey to help researchers.

If you want to work directly with the audio recordings you can volunteer here. This effort will help build better models for bioacoustics, leading to better biodiversity data for the UK.

A big thank you to the Smile Hull Vault

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Molescroft Wildlife Network, recently put on a Hedgehog Highway Event at the Molescoft Pavilion, Beverley. We invited every household in Molescroft through a leafletting campaign. On the day we had several stalls which included Molescroft Wildlife Network, Wolds Hedgehog Rescue, the National Hedgehog Monitoring Project, HEY Smile Foundation Green and Blue Social Prescribing, hedgehog hibernacula construction, a display of emperor moths and childrens activities.

Throughout the day we had short presentations which were very well attended. This was our first event and we were all delighted how it went. We received many positive comments. One hundred and fifty people attended the day which was amazing. It was encouraging to see lots a happy, enthusiastic people enjoying conversation about hedgehogs and nature.

However, this would not have been possible without the help of Smile Hull Vault. We were loaned two collection boxes and were able to raise £40. Alongside this two display boards and an easel to provide information about the Molescroft Wildlife Network were provided by the Smile Hull Vault, which were amazing for community engagement.

However the biggest impact was the loan of a large projection screen and projector for our very well attended programme of presentations from the groups that also had stalls at the event. These were high quality items loaned, and in excellent condition and there’s no way that as a small group with limited funding so we would have been able to deliver an event as well as we did without these loans from Smile Vault Hull. The Vault is easy to use and collectionand return of items is straightforward.

A big thank you to The Vault and we look forward to out next event 2025!

MWN recieve the Jubilee Award from MPC

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The Jubilee Award is a silver cup presented by Molescroft Parish Council to individuals or organisations that have made an outstanding contribution to our community. Only ten presentations have been made from 2000 toi 2023.

It is also referred to as the Millennium Cup because it coincided with the creation of the Millennium Park in 2000.

This made the presentation to Molescroft Wildlife Network particularly memorable because of our present work at Millennium Wildlife Haven.

Unlocking Nature’s Assets for your business.

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Are you a local business owner? Are you interested in how you can integrate natural capital to improve your ESG stance?

What: Unlocking Nature’s Assets: How natural capital can help businesses become more economically and environmentally resilient

When: 9am – 11am, Thursday 6th June 2024

Where: Blake Conference Room, Canham Turner, University of Hull Campus, Cottingham Rd, Hull, HU6 7RX

Booking details: Humber Business Week

The aim of the event is to draw local businesses into the dialogue surrounding natural capital by demonstrating its inherent benefits. We will be using the example of the Blue Green Lab and how this can be replicated elsewhere to support flood resilience, improve water quality, promote biodiversity and increase wellbeing. Dr Robert Thomas, Senior Research Fellow at the EEI, will present on the university’s research in this area, joined by speakers from the Hull and East Yorkshire Local Nature Partnership (HEY LNP), who will set the scene with local examples of natural capital as well as a broader overview of the concept itself. The presentation will then be followed by a tour of university’s Blue Green Lab which will be led by Technology Transfer Assistant, Dr Josh Johnson.

#TeamWilder Empowerment Day at the Streetlife Museum

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We were invited to run a stall and to give a talk for this event run by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. It was a showcase for the communities supported by #TeamWilder, and an initiative to promote nature restoration in the region.

For us, it was a great opportunity to network and have fun. We made useful contacts, and our game, Guess the Invertebrate, challenged visitors to learn about some intriguing creatures among our declining insect population.

It was also a chance for us to publicly thank Andy and Jo at #TeamWilder for all their great support over the past two years.

Put the mower to bed for #NoMowMay

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It’s No Mow May! Plantlife’s #NoMowMay is back this year.

It’s a great chance to save some money, create a feast for pollinators, tackle pollution, reduce urban heat extremes, and lock away atmospheric carbon below ground.

If you want to commit be sure to sign up to Plantlife’s initiative and register your participation.

You can also see how many people across the UK have comitted to No Mow May on this interactive map!

YRN Rewilding in Action: Summer Site Visits 2024

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The Yorkshire Rewilding Network is running its Summer Site Visits for a third year, and it’s a very varied and exciting programme. The rewilding sites vary from wetlands to wildflower meadows, beaver ponds and country estates to community projects and urban gardens.

This year the visits run from April to September.  The next two are:

  • Sunday, April 21st – Harewood Estate Family visit
  • Sunday, May 19th – Leeds community land

To view the whole YRN programme on Eventbrite and to book please click here

Molescroft Hedgehog Highways Project Day

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We were delighted with the success of our event on the 6 th April at the Molescroft Pavilion. 150 people showed up supported by 20 volunteers. There were nine stalls and activities, and five talks. Several hedgehog winter nests were built by Grant and Andy with the help of visitors. We will use these on our sites and donate to local schools. Many new volunteers came forward to join our group.

Ann from The Wolds Hedgehog Rescue Centre was our key speaker, explaining how to care fo hedgehogs, and over £300 was made on their stall. Jo from #TeamWilder told us all about wildlife gardening, and one of our volunteers, Nigel, enchanted everyone with his magnificent home-reared Emperor moths. Lucy from NEYEDC (North East Yorkshire Ecological Data Centre) taught visitors how to use iNaturalist to record local wildlife, and plotted hedgehog sightings in Molescroft. Anthony from Smile Foundation Green and Blue Social Prescribing explained the role of nature in improving
everyone’s mental and physical health.

We are especially grateful to the Hey Smile Foundation and East Riding Council for their Communit Action Grant which made this event and our publicity leaflets possible. Thanks too to the team from Yorkshire Wildlife Trust who designed the leaflets and to the many volunteers who helped deliver these across Molescroft, including the Beverley Wombles.

A huge thankyou from us, to all our volunteers, speakers, and especially all of those who came to the event, we can’t wait to see you again for another event in 2025!

Contribute to our iNaturalist projects!

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MWN have set up a number of projects on iNaturalist to help us monitor biodiversity across the parish, and at some of our sites of special interest. If you are an iNaturalist user your observations in the area will automatically fall under these projects, but we’d welcome active participants to join the groups!