This summer I am cataloguing the flora and plant communities of twelve islands [EDIT 20/11/22: it ended up being eleven islands!] in Strangford Lough, with the help of a BSBI Plant Study Grant. The goal is to have a complete species list of each island and a map showing all of the plant communities and where they occur. I have been kayaking to these islands and doing a thorough survey, and also quadrats in each distinct plant community. I hope to publish this in a suitable journal, under the (working) title The Vascular Flora of Darragh and nearby Islands in Strangford Lough.
This project has been a huge opportunity for me to improve my skills as an all-round botanist and ecologist, and challenge myself with groups like grasses and sedges that I have mostly ignored before.
One thing I hadn’t appreciated about fieldwork before beginning this project – it generates a huge amount of data! Finding time to actually ID difficult specimens I brought home and enter and analyse all my data, then create figures based on it has been exhausting! On the other hand, working hard on figures and being really satisfied with the results is a great feeling, and I think my maps are going to turn out really well.
It has also been nice to spend a lot of time kayaking and exploring the islands, seeing the wildlife that lives there, particularly birds and insects. Sharing the wildlife I encounter here has been great, especially with the people who live and work in the area.
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