Did you know you could help protect our wildlife while enjoying our beautiful district at the same time?
Recording information about the types of insects and animals living in our natural environment is an essential activity that can help policy makers make informed decisions. Everything from where to create a new nature reserve to building a new supermarket depends on accessible wildlife information. The more people who are reporting what they see, the better the quality of information available.
You can record information from your own garden or what you see while out and about. Don’t worry if you haven’t done it before, there is plenty of help and advice out there to help you. One of the easiest ways is to download a reporting app that works with the Biological Records Centre or National Biodiversity Network.
Find out more about and download wildlife reporting tools.
You can also find support and like-minded people who share your enthusiasm by visiting the Worcestershire Biological Records Centre website, which has links to local and national groups covering all types of wildlife recording and conservation.
Winter is a great time to start recording. If you are walking through our woodlands then look out for the rare Mistletoe Marble moth. This insect becomes more obvious in winter, as its caterpillars burrow through the leathery leaves of mistletoe leaving behind twisted brown tracks, called leaf mines.
Lots of creatures turn up in unexpected places over winter. They could be buried in piles of leaves, at the bottom of grassy tussocks, under flakes of bark, buried in mud at the bottom of a pond or even trusting their eggs will survive the cold on a slender stem.
If you do come across any slumbering wildlife while gardening, let it sleep on and remember, when you’re out and about in the countryside, especially in nature reserves, there are whole special communities of plants and animals trying to survive the winter in different ways, so walk softly and let them rest.
