‘Increase awareness, knowledge and support for nature, including through education’ is one of the aims of the Nature Commission and the recent BioBlitz was a great opportunity to do this.

A BioBlitz is a 24-hour event in which local experts and nature enthusiasts work together to find and identify as many species of living organisms as possible. BioBlitzes are held all over the world and aim to improve and promote areas of nature by giving our communities the tools to better understand and protect nature. The data provides an overall count of biodiversity in an area.

The 2024 BioBlitz took place at Bordeaux in May with the nature reserve and the beach forming the area to be searched to find as many species as possible. The Nature Commission worked in partnership with local experts from La Société Guernesiaise, as well as visiting botanists and small mammal specialists from the UK.

Previous BioBlitzes have taken place in Guernsey at Lihou headland, Grande Havre, Hommet headland and L’Ancresse. The plan is to repeat BioBlitz events on these sites in the future so that records can be compared to find out if the presence of different species is changing over time. All information from the BioBlitz is sent to the Guernsey Biological Records Centre.

As part of the Guernsey BioBlitz event, the Nature Commission visited primary schools to explain the purpose of a BioBlitz and prepare the children for their onsite visit.

School visits to Bordeaux took place over two days where the findings of the BioBlitz were shared by local experts with Key Stage 2 children. These site visits connected children with nature found locally and increased the children’s knowledge and understanding of the natural environment. The children took part in a variety of activities including finding out about bats, rock pooling, bird watching, identifying important plants, and searching for ‘minibeasts’. They used spotter sheets to recognise different species as well as other equipment such as binoculars for watching birds and sweep nets to find insects. 

'We loved the BioBlitz and we'd love to come again next year!' said a Year 6 teacher.

The next BioBlitz is planned for May 2025.