Citizen Science & Wildlife Recording

Citizen Science and Wildlife Recording

BANG participates in formal surveys and monitors various environments regularly. The results are then submitted to local or UK-wide nature organisations, who in turn pass relevant data on to landowners and farmers.

The local organisations that we submit data to include:

TVERC – Thames Valley Environmental Records Centre, which collects, manages, and shares data on species, habitats, and geological sites to enable people ,such as developers and public bodies to make informed and sustainable decisions that protect and enhance the environment in Berkshire and Oxfordshire.

BBOWT - Berkshire Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust, which not only manages its nature reserves locally but also monitors species. It runs special projects to support declining species such as water voles and threatened habitats such as chalk grassland. This enables it to advise landowners how to care for habitats and species.

If you’d like to help collect data, let us know by email and we can give you details.

Alternatively, you can take part informally, by just spotting wildlife locally and maybe photographing and recording it. Sharing your sightings on Facebook (Benson Nature Group Facebook) is valuable and rewarding. If appropriate, you can also log them with TVERC.

Here is a taster of the wildlife, habitat and environments that we regularly monitor and survey:

Birds – A team of volunteers conduct regular surveys on our patch to establish what birds we have, where and in what numbers. We cover 11 survey routes on public footpaths across our local farmlands, through woodland, up on the Chilterns and along the River Thames. We submit the records to the nationwide BirdTrack survey, run by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). BTO uses the data to monitor bird populations and distribution, to conduct scientific research into the drivers of change and to provide evidence to inform conservation policy and practice.

Butterflies – We undertake transect surveys from time to time and submit our records to Upper Thames Butterfly Conservation and the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme. BANG members also contribute annually to the Big Butterfly Count from Butterfly Conservation.

Moths – Moth data is collected daily and submitted to TVERC and at the end of the year to Upper Thames Moths. We run several public moth trapping sessions, often with breakfast while we identify the moths in the overnight trap.

Plants – from time to time we survey plants in specific habitats and submit the records to TVERC.

River fly populations – We monitor these every month as these creatures are very sensitive to pollution from a range of sources. They are a good indicator of the quality and health of the water, which provides the habitat for other insects and invertebrates. Our records go to the Cartograopher.io Web site and any untoward findings go to the Environment Agency.

Water quality – We measure nitrate and phosphate levels in our streams and brooks, as part of Earthwatch UK Waterblitz Project.

Water voles – We record evidence of burrows, feeding stations and droppings along the Thames and the brooks and streams in our villages. We contribute the findings to the wider survey from BBOWT.

Biodiversity - We aspire to monitor the biodiversity enhancements in our new housing developments and the wildlife-friendly green spaces.