How many times have you been out on a walk and seen an interesting animal, bird or plant, and managed to take a half-decent picture on your phone? You bring it home, do a bit of research and see that you’ve spotted quite a rare species for your area! Then what do you do? You probably tell your family and friends, but who else wants to know?

We do – we want you to tell us about your wildlife sightings!

Let me explain.
When you tell your family or friends about that species you’ve seen, you’ll likely tell them where you saw it, when you saw it, who you were with, and what the species was. These four facts combined create a ‘biological record’, and this is a recognised scientific piece of data.

There are organisations and groups who want to collect as many biological records as possible, and Transforming the Trent Valley is one of them. In the Trent Valley area, there are also groups called Staffordshire Ecological Records (SER) and Derbyshire Biological Records Centre (DBRC). These organisations collect records on a database, a hugely important resource for wildlife and nature conservation.

Why is it important to share my wildlife records?
Say a developer comes along and wants to build a lot of houses on the site you saw your rare species. If you’ve submitted your record to a regional database like SER, they will use this information to ensure the developer puts in proper mitigation to protect these species. Biodiversity and preserving wildlife are important things for developers to consider. If SER has a large list of rare species, it may be enough to deny building permission entirely.

It is hard to share my records?

Not at all! It is really easy to make and share a record. In fact, you’ve already created it if you write down the 4Ws:

• where (post code or grid reference)
• what (what is the species)
• who (who saw it – this is your name!)
• when (what date)

That’s all you need!

Submitting can be done in many different ways but they all get to the same place in the end.

• iRecord – this is a website and app, you can make a free account and upload all your sightings to this to keep them in one place.
• Email us directly – Click to email your records
• Submit through a website: Staffordshire Ecological Records and Derbyshire Biological Records Centre.

The more records we have, the more we understand the green spaces around us, whether this is a local park in town or the wider countryside. The more information we have, the more we can work to protect our wildlife and environment. Will you help us with this?

More information about our project to record more wildlife sightings can be found on our website or contact Nicola Lynes by email at Nicola.lynes@supportstaffordshire.org.uk or 07837 127165

• A Home Front Mystery
• Protecting your Local Environment – A Guide to our Resource Pack