Tuesday 13 August 2013

University Field Studies

For the second year running we had the pleasure of welcoming a group of students from Bangor University to the observatory.


As a part of their degree's it was down to each student to undertake a mini project of their choice, study whatever it was they had chosen and produce some results in a presentation at the end of the week.



Various projects were chosen to study including newts, grasses, plants, mammals, insects and birds.




Using the wildlife and expertise on Bardsey it was also a great opportunity for one of the lecturers from the university to conduct one of his own research projects. This entailed placing GPS trackers and accelerometers on adult Manx Shearwaters to try and build up a better picture of where these birds go to feed, how often they are out during the incubation period and other details of speed and distance traveled.

The gps and accelerometer tags are fastened to feathers on back of the shearwater with special tape which degrades and eventually falls off after a few weeks


Manx shearwater equip with tags



Morning moth trap session with the group


Bardsey is a fantastic opportunity for anyone in education looking to study and learn more about natural history.



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