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This tiny log is dedicated to my amateur studies of my home state's environments, particularly those I'm directly surrounded by and with a focus on butter-, damsel- and dragonflies, alongside various types of plants and trees.
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{\o/}_________________________________________________________0 Jittlov
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My home place's environment is classified as a typical rural area in Central Europe with a mixture of intensive agriculture, "semi-natural" steppe meadows and forestry. My village is surrounded by several windparks and few factories. Prior to the 1920s, most of this area is being described as a "large swamp" and the meaning behind a town near my village is believed to be "swampy area".
Some locations I occassionally visit are part of the Natura 2000 network. Sadly, most of them are inadequately managed – or not managed at all, as it's not legally binding – and thus saw a decline in biodiversity over the years. One area in particular was intentionally turned into a steppe with almost no diversity for the sake of reviving of traditional grazing practices, which the cooperative supposed to manage showed no interest in after the planned overgrazing was completed.
On the other hand, those protected sites are surrounded by two contrasting environments, namely intensely managed and abandoned fields and hills. The latter, due to largely being left untouched, so far have attracted a variety of insects and plants, most notably damsel-/dragonflies and orchids which I never got to see as a kid. Another area is a former fire-fighting pond receiving minimal management by an individual seeking to gradually revert it back to a bog.
Instead of setting transects like other monitoring programs, I keep track of observation based on the respective biotope and butterfly species composition within each biotope. Damsel- and dragonflies may overlap with those but they receive their own locations in cases where this doesn't apply. There are three "zones", which I visit on a regular basis and constitute my "main area". Biotopes outside this main zone are additional spots I keep track off less frequently due to either being more than one kilometer away from the main zone (such as the "Bog Hill" and the "Meisel Forest") or being too disconnected from it, despite being nearby (most notably the "Car Repair").
The "Bog Hill" is the largest area with exactly one hectare, whereas all other locations are much smaller. Despite this, not all spots within such a location are accessible to me at all times, particularly during "wet seasons". Few abandoned areas, which are dominated by grasses and bushes, would require me to carry a machete with me, which I'd rather not to. Because of privacy reasons and past experiences with stalkers and one doxxing threat, I cannot provide any exact GPS data and exact location names publicly but I may share such information with anyone wanting to use my observations for research purposes via email.
What is accessible to me will be observed for at least 15 minutes per location, depending on the weather conditions, meaning that I will spend less time observing during conditions such as persistent moderate winds, approaching rain/storms and periods of muddy soil (mainly because I repeatedly get stuck in it but the sudden appearance of sinkholes, which is a common occurrence within this part of Germany, is another concern of mine). Most observations take place prior to noon, yet some may be carry out in the late afternoon.
Additionally, I do not count each individual and thus do not provide absolute numbers of each species. This practice, especially in regards to species with sex differences that cannot be assessed during field trips alone, is prone to errors and one individual can be counted multiple times. Instead, I rely on not-so-scientific, purely subjective impressions: If more than five individuals can be counted, I'll regard this species' presence as "strong", less than that will be evaluated on the basis of the respective species.
Due to the dynamic nature of butterflies and the very little amount of data – both recent and historic – for my region, I refuse to rely on a classification scheme based on how "threatened" each species may be to determine the current state of them within my study areas. I only record whether or not each species was observed during each observation season. This means I will also not attempt to make any predictions on how one or more species will perform in the future because of such things being highly dependent on various unpredictable variables.
To make identification easier to me, I always carry my Canon EOS 700D and one of my tele lenses with me, alongside my eMachines netbook as my primary tool to take notes and write "observation logs". My friend from Austria, who graduated with a BSc in zoology and keeps track of the butterflies he observes within his own environment, and a handful of literature assist me during the identification process, as well.
For clarity purposes, I need to mention that my research is biased in multiple ways. Limitations include geography and the lack of accurate location names and geodata, the lack of absolute individual counts, possible "knowledge holes" influencing my literature, my friend and, naturally, me, as well as my own time and energy.
Only few scientists and environmental organizations conduct field studies every ten years and most results either don't get published at all or are difficult to find online. Some results oftentimes are part of state-sponsored investigations determining which areas should become protected by law and re-evaluating current management practices. Unfortunately, those are the hardest papers to read and mostly are filled with wild justifications for not including a location, such as "this pond is too dirty" (with no explanation about the meaning of "dirty" within this context).
I wouldn't have discovered any of those new species and gross mismanagements if it weren't for a friend of mine who studied zoology. Despite living in another country, our respective environments barely differ from each other, which we have used to our advantage to compare trends and local oddities since 2022.
While my observations in particular do not adhere to most of the rules of the usual scientific monitoring practices, even individual discoveries as part of an observation log can be valuable – and I personally learned more about my region's environment from 100-year-old observation diaries published by scientists and local stories rather than modern scientific papers partially relying on unknown Latin names and assumptions about "natural cultural environments" (no, I'm not making this up, it's what officials actually claim).
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