Monitoring of the Marsh

When people think of wildlife watching on Romney Marsh, most would head for Dungeness, but there is fantastic wildlife all around if you know what you’re looking for. The ditches are home to rare plants such as tubular water dropwort and Marsh mallow. Rare bees can be found all across the marsh and buzzards can be seen soaring overhead.
This project is all about teaching local people to recognise the wildlife that is all around them. We are working in partnership with Kent and Sussex Records Centres to put on a series of training courses and organise a network of recorders to gather as much information about the wildlife of the marsh as possible. This feeds into the other projects and will be useful for planning projects into the future. Perhaps it will even spark some budding naturalists to get more involved with nature conservation. Click the Wildlife Recording Tab!
Monitoring of the Marsh contributes to Restore project theme.
The are opportunities to become volunteer wildlife surveyors. Check out the Wildlife Recording Page for more information.
COMING SOON! A programme of events and workshops on the species of Romney Marsh.
Visit the volunteering page to find out more about getting involved with Fifth Continent projects.

2020
Romney Marsh recorders group update
Great to see that people are continuing to get involved in the Romney recorders group. The group has recorded a range of species from across the marsh to add to existing knowledge. Two more sessions happening over the winter months.
2019
Update
The last wildlife event focusing on overlooked mammals of Kent took place on 29 Sept. Look out for the new events programme in 2020.
Romney recorders group update
Great to see that people are continuing to get involved in the Romney recorders group. There will be two more sessions happening over the winter months.
Busy delivering wildlife events
Wildlife events took place across June and early July covering a broad range of subjects including botany, habitat assessment, medicinal leeches and two different wildlife walks along the Royal Military Canal. More events to come soon – follow the What’s On page for more details.
Successful wildlife recording session
During May we had a fabulous wildlife recording session with some excellent volunteers from @ecologyconsult on Romney Marsh. We were lucky enough to find a great silver water beetle and an enormous pike! Many thanks to The Ecology Consultancy for giving us their time and expertise to carryout wildlife recording for a day to further our understanding of Romney Marsh.
Events Programme Launched
A drop-in event was held at Ivychurch on 27 April. It was great to see people interested in local wildlife. People saw pond life under a microscope, our new interactive map and got a chance to find out more about the exciting events taking place this summer.
Monthly Recording Task Days planned
The monthly recording task days will take place every second Monday of the month (commencing 13 May 2019). Each month we will visit a different site around the Marsh and record as many plants and animals as we can. Training will be given and at each visit we will focus on a different species group, some sessions will be based at a single site whilst others will take the form of a gentle stroll.
2018
Programme of events for 2019
A programme of events in 2019 is being drawn up for the Monitoring of the Marsh project, which will include a packed schedule of wildlife training events and exhibitions. For more details visit the What’s On page.
Events being planned
A programme of events being drawn up for this project, mainly to take place in 2019. We will have a packed schedule of wildlife training events and exhibitions.
Habitat survey update
Plants and lichen survey of church yards started
Habitat survey update
A contractor has been appointed to commence the habitat survey in the Sussex area of the project. Phase one of the project will establish existing land use types. Local recording groups have been contacted to invite them to be involved in the project.
Ready to commence
After much sorting of contract documents, we’re now ready to commence subject to fleshing out the bones of this project.
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Help us reach 100,000 wildlife sightings!
Get involved with wildlife recording on Romney Marsh! Whether you’ve never heard of wildlife recording or you’re an expert entomologist there are lots of events coming up and ways to get involved. Go to the
Wildlife Recording page for full details and to check out our interactive map.
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To find out more including how to get involved contact the project team.