Botany Bay Beach Trip

On 16 Wednesday, the Upper Sixth biology cohort embarked on a trip to Botany Bay Beach and Wild Wood Trust. At the beach, we got to conduct practical investigations to widen our physical understanding of ecology. This included laying down belt transects to measure the succession of species from land to sea and counting the percentage cover of organisms within our quadrats. Throughout this, we learnt more about sand couch, a common coastal grass species. The staff with us were incredible identifiers of the many species on the beach, teaching us how to recognise even the smallest differences between similar species of plants.

Progressing from the beach to the woods, with a quick lunch break in between, the Upper Sixth got to put their quadrat skills into play. We got taken to a diverse woodland area within Wild Wood Trust to record percentage abundance of woodland plant species. This developed everyone’s teamwork and communication skills to find the random coordinate given to us by our highly informative guides.

Moving on from plants to animals, the Upper Sixth investigated the diversity and abundance of a range of invertebrates, across ash and pine woodland. To do so, we used sifts and pooters to individually collect the invertebrates naturally found beneath the leaf litter.

Before returning to the bus to depart, we had some free time to walk around Wild Wood. During which, groups of the Upper Sixth took guided walkabouts to view the diverse collection of animals at the Trust. This included observing mice, owls, deer, otters, European bison, and much more. During these tours, the workers gave loads of interesting facts about the animals. For instance, reindeer can see the UV spectrum and have a clicking sound produced from their tendons in the ankles, to stay together in snowstorms.

Overall, this educational trip was very enlightening and helpful to experience ecology in action, something which I and many more will remember to help visualise sampling techniques.

Hélène Bonsall