Well then….. what a lovely day we all had at our BioBlitz event we held in conjunction with the Natural History Society of Northumbria. The Friends of Jesmond Old Cemetery were up with the larks to put our new tent up, erect tables and put out the cakes and coffee for our guests. James and his team of volunteers from the NHSN arrived shortly after us and expertly set up their stall, complete with nets, collection jars and identification charts, much quicker than we did – they’d obviously done this before!!

Meanwhile, Jackie and Anna set up the Ladybird Hunt trail on the West Mound – not real Ladybirds, you understand – Jackie had spent her precious time painting 15 Ladybird shaped pebbles, all brightly coloured, with a variety of Ladybird type spots. The trail was designed for any little ones that may have become bored by the more serious task in hand i.e. of finding out what grows, flies, walks, creeps and crawls in Jesmond Old Cemetery, with the Ladybirds hidden in plain sight amongst the memorials and monuments. Anyway, it proved to be a great success, with all who joined in finding all fifteen Ladybirds, thus winning a Ladybird inspired cake for their efforts.

Additionally, Christine and Chris did a great job keeping everyone fed and watered, raising over £70 for our funds, whilst the rest of the Friends i.e. Anna, Gill, Pauline, Susie, Gary, James, Ollie and Ray helped keep the show on the road, looking after visitors and carrying out impromptu mini tours.

As the day progressed, we hosted at least 50 visitors who helped to collect and identify well over 200 different species, including seven species of butterfly, 70 plants, some of which were quite rare, and a whole host of other insects.

So, the sun shone, we had a laugh and we helped our friends at the NHSN with their important work with their Gosforth’s Wild Web project. In addition, the information collected and collated on the day will help us with our own project – creating a family friendly nature trail around Jesmond Old Cemetery to highlight the variety of wildlife within it.

What follows is a gallery of images from our BioBlitz day – a great day out that we hope to host again next year!!