Getting started with the survey
Having agreed a potential site for doing our riverfly survey, we set out with all our equipment to do our first assessment. Sadly the brook had run dry on the day we first tried, but after some rain there was water once again and we began a practice run. There was plenty of silt and detritus from the material that hadn't washed downstream that made things a little difficult. We returned in late September with a small team of volunteers and did our first proper survey.
What we found
There wasn't much evidence of invertebrates but we found a few and hopefully the population will recover. We did find leeches, freshwater shrimp, olives, blue-winged olives and we found a water hog louse along with a couple of small fish. As we monitor through the year we will build a picture of the health of the brook.
Looking ahead
We have now trained as river wardens and hope to do a baseline survey of the brook fairly soon so we can then make regular assessments of its condition.
