At the moment, microWild is me (Brian) and a few dedicated friends. But I want it to be more.
For example, in 2025, long-time microWild friend Paul Galvin will take on the role of Flora Surveyor and Recorder for the project. Paul is a very knowledgable horticulturist and will take on the job of identifying and recording all of the flora on the site including grasses, sedges, wildflowers, etc.
There are a few other things that we could really use help with on an ongoing basis, though. Maybe your skills might fit our gap? We will start with a researcher/writer...
Every invertebrate species that we identify on the site will be logged and recorded. In addition to this, though, we would love to produce species profile datasheets similar to those shown in the linked file below. Eventually, there may be plans to include these in a microWild publication (book or otherwise).
The person in this role would receive a list of species from us and would need to produce the text for the species profile which might include general information about the species, descriptive characteristics, ecology, lifecycle etc. Some anecdotal text will be provided from the microWild team to give context to the species within the microWild site.
It is effectively a research role and you would need to spend some time looking through books, websites, etc. to gather the information. You should have a strong interest in the invertebrates with access to some books (perhaps relating to your own invertebrate passions), websites, from which you can draw interesting information.
You will be fully supported in the role as much as you need by Brian. You also don't need to live near the site to help out in this role.
As it is an unpaid (yet fully credited) role, we know we can't ask too much of you, but would ask that you choose to define how much time you can give to the task per week or month. We have found that the research and writing can take 2-4 hours per species.
If this sounds interesting to you, please get in contact with us at beesofireland@gmail.com.
If, as an experiment, you'd like to try your hand out at writing a species profile, you can choose from the list below and give it your best.