On BBC Springwatch on Thursday 30th May, Chris Packham, Martin Hughes-Games and Michaela Strachan will race to find as many species as possible in one garden. Their aim is to highlight the importance of gardens for wildlife, raise awareness of the amazing diversity of species that can be found on our doorstep and encourage the public to get involved in the Garden Bioblitz which is taking place across the country this weekend, 1st and 2nd June.
The Garden Bioblitz was piloted last year by a group of wildlife enthusiasts and experts who met on Twitter. During the pilot, which was carried out on the 21st and 22nd July 2012, these 24 people ‘bioblitzed’ their gardens and made 2,231 records of 966 species through a dedicated recording form on iRecord. This year they are taking the Garden Bioblitz national and inviting everyone to join in!
The Garden Bioblitz website tells you everything you need to know to take part, including how to get help with identification, how to record your sightings on iRecord and a list of the ‘top 20’ species to look out for. You can choose a 24 hour period over the weekend to carry out your own garden bioblitz – you don’t have to ‘blitz’ for the whole 24 hours, just go out at different times of day or night and record what you find. A Garden Bioblitz Info Centre has been set up on iRecord, where you can view the latest photos, find out which recorders and species are ‘trending’, keep an eye on the running total of species and records, and see a breakdown of results by Vice County on an interactive map.
There are many other bioblitzes taking place all over the country, indeed the ‘bioblitz season’ is already well under way! You can use the Find a Bioblitz interactive calendar on the Bristol Natural History Consortium website to find out about bioblitzes in your area. Bioblitz organisers are always grateful for support from naturalists, whether helping members of the public identify things they have seen, leading activities such as wildflower walks or moth trapping, or simply carrying out their own survey of the site and handing in their records.
A bioblitz can cover a site of any size; a back garden, a local nature reserve, a seashore or even a whole city! A few examples of this year’s bioblitzes and other wildlife recording events include:
- Bristol Festival of Nature, the UK’s largest free natural history event, takes place on the weekend of the 15th-16th June. It celebrates its tenth anniversary this summer with the launch of Bristol99 – six weeks of natural history events and activities taking place on 99 wildlife sites throughout Bristol. A dedicated iRecord form has been set up to capture wildlife records made during the Bristol99 events.
- Ireland’s Bioblitz, which took place on the 24th and 25th May, is an annual partnership project coordinated by the National Biodiversity Data Centre. The bioblitz was carried out at four sites simultaneously, making this bioblitz not just a race against time but also against the competitors! The winning site was Colebrook Estate in Co. Fermanagh with an impressive tally of 1,086 species.
- The Marine Biological Association’s Looe Bioblitz, which takes place on the 23rd and 24th June, is the MBA’s fifth annual bioblitz. Like the MBA’s previous bioblitzes, this is a multi-partner event involving local and national organisations involved in marine and terrestrial recording. They aim to record over 1,000 species, a target they surpassed at their 2012 Cawsand Bay bioblitz when they achieved a total of 1,060!
- The Sheffield Bioblitz, which took place on the 16th-18th May, was the city’s second citywide bioblitz. Last year’s event took place over 48 hours with records accepted from anywhere within the city boundary and a range of recording activities coordinated by Sorby Natural History Society, leading to a total of over 3,000 individual records of over 1,100 species.
Bioblitzes can be a great tool for engaging the public and helping to inspire a new generation of recorders; they can also generate useful comprehensive data on a defined site, including the common species which are often overlooked. It is vital that records gathered during bioblitzes are made widely available, both as an incentive for people to get involved in the first place and as a way of making all the effort by organisers and participants worthwhile!
The NBN, OPAL and the Natural History Museum have produced guidance on data sharing for bioblitz organisers. Using iRecord is an easy way of ensuring bioblitz records are stored securely, validated, verified, shared with national recording schemes and local record centres and passed on to the NBN Gateway. iRecord allows recording within a defined site boundary and provides updates in real time of the total number of species and records, as well as displaying the latest records and photos. If you would be interested in using iRecord for your bioblitz, contact irecord@ceh.ac.uk