Meet Olivia – our new Natural Heritage and Communities Officer

Hello! I’m Olivia, the new Natural Heritage and Communities Officer for the New Life on the Old West project.

Before joining Cambridgeshire ACRE, I worked in publishing, most recently for Cambridge University Press on their life science and mental health books, which included lovely books on barn owls, fungi and rewilding, as well as the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ list. Prior to this, I studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, specialising in ecology and conservation.

I enjoy exploring the outdoors in my spare time, cycling and wild camping and swimming. I like to look out for interesting plants, especially wildflowers. I’ve found that Cambridge is a great place to spot orchids, from bee orchids (the flowers of which look like female bees to trick male bees into pollinating the flowers) to rare lizard orchids (which smell like goats!). I enjoyed visiting Fulbourn Fen last summer trying to find the six different species of orchid that have been recorded there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When there are less wildflowers about in the autumn, I like to hunt for fungi instead. Below are a few photos of some recent finds – the kingdom is incredibly diverse! Although I’ve recently discovered that not everything that you think might belong to the fungi kingdom necessarily is. Slime moulds are primitive organisms which share some similarities with both fungi and single-celled organisms, but aren’t considered to be in the kingdom Fungi. I also came across a clear gelatinous ‘blob’ in Dartmoor a few months back, which is known as star jelly. According to folklore, this jelly-like substance is deposited on Earth during meteor showers, however a more plausible explanation today is that it is regurgitated frog spawn jelly – when birds such as herons or owls eat frogs, the mucus jelly expands in the bird’s stomach in contact with water and the bird then regurgitates it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of my favourite encounters with wildlife have included seeing a flock of 47 spoonbills at RSPB Arne in Dorset last year, and spotting barn owls, long-eared owls roosting, short-eared owls, merlin and marsh harriers at Elmley Nature Reserve in Kent, followed by a hedgehog crawling by my foot whilst sitting around a firepit in the evening!

I’m excited to be involved in this project aimed at increasing the ecological resilience of the Fens and helping to engage people with the nature on their doorstep. I look forward to hopefully meeting you at some of our upcoming events!