Owen Derrick

2nd year Biology student at Royal Holloway, University of London. Interested in environmental biology, ecology and wildlife conservation 🐝🐳🦒 He/him

[Owen Derrick @BioscienceOwen]

Back in the beautiful New Forest 😍 Looking forward to a week of tennis, swimming & exploring the forest again! #NewForest

[Owen Derrick @BioscienceOwen]

Such an inspiring week at the Knepp Estate for a field ecology course as part of my third year ‘Conservation in the field’ module! Thank you to @opwall, @RHULBioSci & @KneppSafaris for making it happen. I have learnt skills I didn’t think I would until much later in my career!

[Owen Derrick @BioscienceOwen]

A field vole I saw today when learning small mammal trapping techniques (Longworth trap here) at Knepp on a field course. #ecology #mammal #biodiversity #education 🍃

[Owen Derrick @BioscienceOwen]

Tamworth pigs… used at Knepp to emulate the effects of the Wild Boar. With their distinct feeding method, rootling provides the bare earth necessary for seedlings from species such as Sallow to grow. In turn helping Purple Emperor butterfly populations! 🐷🦋🌱

[Owen Derrick @BioscienceOwen]

Along with my bird knowledge increasing, I now understand how important bird ringing can be to understand the population dynamic, bird health and their movements 🐦

[Owen Derrick @BioscienceOwen]

Despite an early wake up call at 4:30am, bird mist netting was worth it! I can now identify many more birds… and whilst waiting I even learnt some bird calls… my favourite today being the Blackcap warbler 🎶 Pictured below: Whitethroat and Chiffchaff

[Owen Derrick @BioscienceOwen]

Mercury vapour moth light trap last night at Knepp. Pictured below: Poplar Hawk moth, Elephant Hawk moth and Buff-tipped moth 💡#lepidoptera

[Owen Derrick @BioscienceOwen]

Excited for an early morning tomorrow checking the moth traps before going out to learn some surveying techniques! #ecology

[Owen Derrick @BioscienceOwen]

First night camping at the beautiful @KneppSafaris for a ‘Conservation in the field’ field course! Spent the evening setting up moth light traps and checking for snakes… came across two grass snakes and a slow worm so far 🐍

[Owen Derrick @BioscienceOwen]

Back on the beautiful grounds of campus! @RoyalHolloway

[Owen Derrick @BioscienceOwen]

Noticed this lone wild violet flower in the garden. Does anyone know what species, maybe common dog-violet or sweet violet? Not 100% sure of the difference. I read sepal shape is a good identifier- forgot to photograph those but I might go and find them again! #spring

[Owen Derrick @BioscienceOwen]

Lovely to see the garden becoming more colourful by the day! #Spring #TwitterNatureCommunity

[Owen Derrick @BioscienceOwen]

Massively recommend watching #Seaspiracy on Netflix for anyone interested in the protection of marine life & the actions you can take to help. It explores how sustainable ‘sustainable fishing’ really is & how labelling on seafood items is often misleading! @seaspiracy

[Owen Derrick @BioscienceOwen]

Love to see fallen trees and other natural debris left alone. Often a human’s idea of untidiness in nature is the best place for invertebrates and other small animals!🍁 🐜 #TwitterNatureCommunity

[Owen Derrick @BioscienceOwen]

A bee hotel I recently made from some spare wood in the garden! This is an easy to make, cheap structure that can help increase biodiversity in gardens- benefiting insects and bees such as the solitary bee, Osmia bicornis (red mason bee). #TwitterNatureCommunity #bees #insects

[Owen Derrick @BioscienceOwen]

Peaceful walk around RSPB Wallasea Island today! Lots of wading birds and a healthy flock of Brent geese. We were even surprised to see what we thought was a hedgehog until we realised it was a mound of mud 🦔😢 @Natures_Voice @RSPBRainham

[Owen Derrick @BioscienceOwen]

Excited to begin establishing a suitable area for a mini-wildflower meadow in the garden! We’ve recently got rid of some sheds- so what better way to make use of the space. Eager to see an abundance of pollinators visit our garden in the future hopefully!🐝🦋 #SaveThePollinators

[Owen Derrick @BioscienceOwen]

@ecoforlifeeu @LaurenClark2021 @ShadyAdy42 @AnnamarieClear1 @wychwoodgeog @peter4buckley @ian1martin @scribblersdrey @ProjetosAmbien2 @NorthCarolinaAG @mijomojo1 @SandraPiesik @EnriqueTorca Hello! 👋🏻

[Owen Derrick @BioscienceOwen]

Beautiful snow drops in the woods. A sign that spring is on its way! #TwitterNatureCommunity

[Owen Derrick @BioscienceOwen]

@wildmeera Still working on that😁 There is definitely a wide variety of shapes and sizes!

[Owen Derrick @BioscienceOwen]

Interesting to see all the different animal prints in the snow the last few days! 🐦🐾 #TwitterNatureCommunity