It is now recognised that gardens in the UK between them contain a lot of biodiversity, and can play an important role in conservation of certain species. Our national love-affair with gardens has created some excellent habitats for species that find gardens to their liking. We gardeners are in a unique position to add to scientific understanding of the natural world by observing and recording the wildlife on our doorsteps.
Scientific surveys of gardens by individual researchers are difficult to organise - imagine the logistical problems of organising your fieldwork in dozens, or even hundreds, of private gardens on a regular basis in order to to monitor projects and collect data. It has been done (i.e. by the BUGS projects in Sheffield) but such research is hard to sustain. This is where gardeners have a role - we ourselves can contribute to some of the various garden wildlife recording schemes that have been set up.
The prime example is the weekly 'Garden Bird Watch' recording scheme established by the British Trust for Ornithology in 1995. This has proved very successful over the years and currently has about 16,000 contributors across the UK, who send in a weekly report of birds seen in their gardens. Long-term trends and changes in garden bird distribution and behaviour have been clearly identified from these records. Examples are the decline in numbers of House Sparrows and Song Thrushes in town gardens, and on the other hand the increasing numbers of Goldfinches that are seen visiting gardens.
There are now numerous recording schemes you can contribute to - some of them one-offs, some of them on one day or one week a year, and some of them are regular and on-going. Don't think that your contribution is not important - conservation decisions can only be taken on the basis of sound data about the distribution and current status of a species, and the more records that are received, the better that data is. Charles Darwin himself was an amateur naturalist, who developed his ideas from regular observations and records of species that he saw in his garden in Kent.
Some recording schemes you can take part in at home
Here are some recording schemes particularly suitable for gardeners to take part in at home. The list is not exhaustive - new schemes are sometimes launched, and most groups of plants and animals have their own specialist organisations and recording schemes. (More about some of these on my LINKS page). All the schemes below are straightforward and suitable for newcomers to recording.
BTO Garden Birdwatch: you complete a simple weekly bird record sheet, and can also take part in garden mammal and garden bumblebee recording.
www.bto.org/gbw/index.htm
RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch: a separate scheme to the one previously described, this takes place on one weekend in January each year.
www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch
Moths Count
http://www.mothscount.org/text/4/recording.html
Count Bats Project
www.bats.org.uk/pages/count_bat_project.html
Pond Conservation's 'Big Pond Dip'
http://www.pondconservation.org.uk/bigponddip/
Winter Bumblebees
www.bwars.com/winter_bumblebees.htm
Bumblebees in general - the Bumblebee Conservation Trust www.bumblebeeconservation.org/surveys.htm
Molewatch: perhaps you don't have moles in your garden, but they may be nearby in a local park or roadside verge
www.molewatch.org.uk
Hogwatch Hedgehog Recording Scheme:
www.hogwatch.org.uk
OPAL Air Survey: spend an our or so recording lichens on a local tree or counting spots on sycamore leaves. Your results will help to give a picture of changes in air quality. Where air pollution has decreased, lichens are returning.
www.opalexplorenature.org
A useful website to help you to develop your identification skills is I-SPOT, sponsored by the Open University.
You can read about the two 'BUGS' recording projects in Sheffield back gardens HERE.
© Marc Carlton 2010.