Recording your wildlife sightings

Woman looking through a hand lens by Wendy Carter

Identifying wildlife through a hand lens by Wendy Carter

Worcestershire Biological Records Centre

Recording your wildlife sightings

Habitat and species data collected within the county is stored and managed by Worcestershire Biological Records Centre (WBRC), based at Lower Smite Farm.

WBRC currently hold over 1,000,000 species records, covering everything from adders to zebra spiders. Habitat data includes land use databases such as the Worcestershire Habitat Inventory and digitised maps of county nature reserves and Local Wildlife Sites.

Data is collected and submitted to WBRC by a huge range of people from members of the public to professional conservation staff.  The data is used to inform land management decision-making, advice given to landowners and decisions made by, for example, local authorities when they determine planning applications.

You can help the work of WBRC by sending in records of wildlife sightings, accompanied by evidence such as a photograph. All records are important, even those you might not think are very interesting – such as rabbits or brown rats. 

You can enter records for anywhere in Worcestershire, so if you are out on a Worcestershire Wildlife Trust reserve or just in your back garden please do get involved and let us know what you see!

You can send records to WBRC via email (download a copy of our basic recording form) or on paper recording forms.  We're working with WBRC to gather sightings of hedgehogs and other wildlife across Worcestershire - click the links in the boxes below to find out more.

If you would like to improve your wildlife ID skills you might want to look at some of the events run by Worcestershire Wildlife Trust.

You can contact WBRC on 01905 759759 or records@wbrc.org.uk or visit Worcestershire Biological Records Centre website for more information.