Ballikinrain Ladybird Survey for the John Muir Award

Posted on Monday, 01 February 2010 03:12PM by Chris McNaught

During the course of this term the Forest School department have been running the John Muir award with one of our pupils surveying and recording orange ladybirds found within the school grounds. These ladybirds, while not rare for this part of the country, have never been recorded here before.This year sees the second year of the survey at the school and early results look promising. John (in the picture) thought it would be a great idea to do the surveying and recording this year and tie it in to the John Muir Discovery Award which he is well on the way to achieving. John has a good eye for spotting these ladybirds which over winter on Sycamore and Ash trees. There is no easy way to do the surveying; you have to check every tree individually! They can be found on their own or in groups: sometimes as many as 12 have been seen huddled together under a branch just above head height. John will be collating his results and finishing off his surveying over the next few weeks. These results will then be posted on this website http://www.jmt.org/jmaward-home.asp and also added to the UK ladybird register. Through actively managing our woodlands here at Ballikinrain we can ensure a safe habitat for this species for the future.