Waders Ready, Crayfish Go!
Been back out on crayfish surveys in Notts with the Nottinghamshire Biodiversity Action Group over the last few weeks. Waders on, nets in hand, netting into murky water like it is treasure hunting. There is something fun about being back in streams and ditches, lifting stones carefully and checking refuges, looking for signs of native white-clawed crayfish or evidence of invasive signal crayfish. It is slow, methodical work, habitat checks, recording water conditions, scanning banks for burrows, and it feels purposeful.
We are also conducting a long term invasive species programme at a site to keep signal crayfish under control, which is especially important given how close that population is to some of the last strongholds of white-clawed crayfish in the area.
What I like about these days is the mix of science and mud. You are collecting data that feeds into real conservation decisions but you are also physically in the landscape, out early in the morning with fellow volunteers, people who are genuinely invested in local species. It is not glamorous but it matters. And after so much time indoors at my desk or in the hospital, being back knee deep in a Nottinghamshire stream feels like exactly the right kind of reset.
