Earthworm Sampling Day

Join like-minded people with an interest in recording wildlife observations for a day surveying earthworms. The specimens collected will help us to build up a a library of images for the Earthworm Image Recognition Project and generate earthworm species list for the site. All records will be added to the National Earthworm Recording Scheme database. Sampling earthworms involves conducting microhabitat searches and hand-sorting soil pit samples to collect specimens for identification by our trained earthworm recorders at a later date.

Participants will also be asked to take photographs of the earthworms that they collect and submit these to the Earthworm Image Recognition Project - an exciting collaboration with the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology to create and test an app that will attempt to identify earthworms using AI.

What will the day involve?

• Practical experience using a variety of methods to survey and sample earthworms.
• Practical experience in collecting and preserving earthworm specimens.
• Contributing to an innovative project involving smartphone photography and AI
• A chance to meet fellow like-minded people from a range of different disciplines.

Earthworm Specialist: Keiron Derek Brown

Keiron has been running the National Earthworm Recording Scheme since it was launched in 2014. He has run over 100 earthworm training courses and events since 20214, covering a wide range of subjects including biology, ecology, surveying, identification and recording. He is currently authoring a Provisional Earthworm Conservation Status Assessment for the UK on behalf of Natural England.

Recording London's earthworms

All records collected will be added to the LNHS iRecord activity in order to share our findings with the site managers, Greenspace Information for Greater London (GiGL), London Natural History Society (LNHS) and the National Earthworm Recording Scheme.

The photos generated will be shared with the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and used to train an image recognition AI to assist farmers with earthworm identification.

Paradise Fields (Horsenden Hill)

Paradise Fields is located on Horsenden Hill and will be the site of an enclosed beaver reintroduction within the London borough of Ealing, so we're visiting the site ahead of the release to record the wildlife that is using the site.

This event is delivered by the Biological Recording Company, Earthworm Society of Britain and London Natural History Society as part of the Bringing Back Beavers to Ealing and Earthworm Image Recognition projects.

The Bringing Back Beavers to Ealing project is a partnership between the Beaver Trust, Citizen Zoo, Ealing Wildlife Group, Ealing Council and Friends of Horsenden Hill. The project is made possible by funding from the Rewild London Fund 2022 from the Greater London Authority.