In this guest post, Wild Ouseburn participant Colin describes an output inspired by his recordings of wildlife sightings in the Lower Ouseburn Valley.
I began using the iNaturalist app on my phone to take photos and record details of the natural species encountered while walking through the valley. Despite most of my observations being relatively mundane such as the pigeons, mallards, swans, crows and moorhens, the activity increased my awareness of the environment by keeping me alert in case I saw something less common. I did wonder if anyone would report the giraffe at Ouseburn Farm.
I never spotted any lynx, sea lions, penguins, or even secondary traces of those organisms (what iNaturalist calls “evidence of presence” such as track, molt, egg). But in turn, the gamification which iNaturalist adds (observation, species and identification counts) led me to imagine other fanciful wild species which might exist. I started taking photos of what inspired me, and last month created a chart comprising 24 of these photos and speculative descriptions in a natural observation style. Three of these are included below to provide a feel for the sorts of species; none of these made it into the official records.
The descriptions were influenced by what I have learnt about wildlife identification, my past experiences and people I have met and places I have been around the valley. The colourful umbrella looked almost new and must have been caught by the wind to end up in the river bed, but the transparency and dots made me thing of jellyfish I had seen lying on beaches elsewhere. The latin names of species encouraged me to name artificial plants “plastiche”, a portmanteau of plastic and pastiche. The species P. Agrostis is then a play on the name of one of the common lawn grass species. I also wanted to mention in the description how relatively few occurrences of these fake plants there are in the valley (mostly domestic locations), unlike in other areas further west. The scooter species’ name is a play on their brand name “neuron” and being gathered together in packs like the feral pigeons. You can quite often see their eggs abandoned around the valley.
All 24 highlight the co-existence of wildlife and humans, which is especially obvious in the vibrant Lower Ouseburn Valley where people are living, visiting or working, interacting and enjoying the environment. My full poster “The Essential identification Chart of Distinctive Native Wonders in The Lower Ouseburn Valley” was made in Byker and will be displayed at future Wild Ouseburn exhibitions.