IT'S not every day you find an extinct species in your car park but that's exactly what happened to site services assistant Carl Payne when he was working in Northop last year.

Carl, vice chairman of Clywydian Branch Wildlife Trust and works at Wrexham Glyndwr University's Northop campus, had just completed a survey looking at the number of plants and animals on the Northop site, when he saw a little black spot on the trees at the edge of the car park.

"I went to investigate it and it was a beetle of some kind, with eggs and larvae - although I didn't know what kind it was at first," he says. "I had some of my books from my wildlife and plant biology course with me, so I had a quick look in them, but didn't see anything it looked like immediately. I took a few pictures so I could identify it myself and sent some off to Cofnod, the biological recording centre for North Wales.

"Having looked the beetle up, I knew it was a leaf beetle of some kind because of its shape - I found some pictures online that looked like the beetle, but most of those were in Europe, not the UK. They seemed to indicate it was the Alder Leaf Beetle.

"I then spoke to staff at Cofnod (the North Wales Environmental Information Service), who I had sent the picture to - and they confirmed it was indeed Agelastica alni, the rare Alder Leaf Beetle. The species had previously been declared extinct before being re-discovered in the mid 2000s and this discovery was one of a handful in Wales.

"It was pretty amazing to hear - I got quite a buzz from it. It's really nice to find something new on a survey, even if it's common, but I was absolutely delighted to find something so rare. We carry out survey lists like this to make sure we know what species are on the university estate so we can conserve them - and we're clearly doing something right!"

Educating students about the importance of biodiversity is key to the undergraduate degree courses in Wildlife & Plant Biology and Animal Studies, which are offered by Glyndwr University. Staff and students are involved in research on declining species, in the management and monitoring of a variety of species on campus and in studying the impacts and effectiveness of different management and surveying techniques. Students are also taught practical habitat management and conservation skills.

Carl has also put together a Sustainability Action Working Group which logs and records any wildlife sightings seen across all the campuses, with a new general species list for all plant and wildlife accessible and ready to be populated by staff and students from all campuses.

On Sunday, June 9, the university will also be inviting the public to help them record as many plants and animals as they can find, when it opens up its Northop campus for a special Bioblitz and Nature Fun Day. Lots of experts will be on hand to share their passion for the site's wildlife, including Buglife, RSPB, British Dragonfly Society, Field Studies Council, Amphibian and Reptile Conservation and Nurturing Nature along with all sorts of family friendly activities

"We want to make it interesting for the children and capture their imagination while they are young," explains Carl. "Cofnod are very interested in this site too. It's very species rich because of the different areas we've got. Thirty years ago it belonged to the Welsh College of Horticulture, so you have loads of odd and hybrid trees and potentially because of that it may have brought in other species."

The Northop campus plays host to about 100 students per year, and in addition to lecture and teaching rooms, the campus boasts environmental and science laboratories, an organic farm production unit, ancient woodland and conservation area, formal and informal gardens and a managed wildflower meadow.

"This is semi-natural grassland," explains lecturer in Animal Science and Conservation at the university, Denise Yorke, as we stroll out across the stunning meadowland which is alive with insect activity. "We don't mow it and it is managed as a hay meadow. It attracts and encourages insects and a whole range of wildlife and we use it in our studies for our degree courses here at Wrexham Glyndwr University. Students can learn survey skills for conservation and we survey for a lot of native British wildlife here, as well as plant and habitat identification too. Developing your knowledge of field signs is an extremely useful skill for our students - and for anyone who wants to know more about our British wildlife.

"It's fantastic to have it on our doorstep as historically we've lost a great deal of meadowland. The major concern we have at the moment is the loss of insects over the last decade - it has speeded up and we are now at a position where numbers have decreased so much that anything anybody can do to encourage them is important.

"When you stand still and get your eye in you can see all sorts of stuff and this is only mid-May - give it another fortnight and a whole different set of species will be here. It's a great place to be."

True to her word as I peer into the long grass, a movement catches my eye and I spy a strange looking insect with distinctive antennae and dark and light bands. Carl takes some notes and a picture and the next day emails me to say I'd discovered Agapanthia villosoviridescens or a Golden-bloomed Grey Longhorn Beetle, which is incredibly rare to the area and hasn't been spotted in Flintshire in years. Unsurprisingly I'm buzzing and vow to return for the Bioblitz with my children. Who knows what we will find next?

The Wrexham Glyndwr University Northop Campus Bioblitz and Nature Fun Day takes place on Sunday, June 9 from 11am-5pm and is part of Wales Nature Week 2019. For more information call 07921 544180 or email: carlpayne52@gmail.com