Wildlife Activities

From surveys to podcasts, there are plenty of wildlife themed activities available to get involved with; below is a list of resources from a wide variety of organisations, collated by SEWBReC. 

 

Wildlife Recording Surveys

SEWBReC Squares of the Month (year round)

SEWBReC Species of the Month (year round)

Noble Chafer Pheromone Trapping Survey in Wye Valley AONB (June 2022)

Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust surveys (year round)

Garden BirdWatch (year round)

Garden Butterfly Survey (year round)

Garden Moth Scheme (year round)

Garden Wildlife Health (year round)

Mammal Web (year round)

Spittlebug Survey (year round)

Wetland Bird Survey (year round)

Big Garden Birdwatch (Jan)

New Year Plant Hunt (Jan)

Spawn Survey (Jan-May)

BTO Breeding Bird Survey (Apr - Jun)

Bat Sunset/Sunrise Survey (Apr-Sept)

UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (Apr-Sept)

Big Garden Sawfly Survey (May - Sept)

Bugs Matter (Jun-Aug)

Big Meadow Search (Jun - Aug)

National Plant Monitoring Scheme (Spring - Summer)

 

YouTube Playlists

Playlists of species training courses from different organisations, collated by SEWBReC.

Amphibian and reptile courses

Aquatic invertebrate courses

Bee courses

Bird courses

Field Skills courses

Flowering plant courses

Fungi courses

Lichen courses

Lower plant courses

Mammal courses

Moth & Butterfly courses

Recording courses

Spider & Harvestman courses

Terrestrial invertebrate courses

 

YouTube Channels

SEWBReC

Cofnod

WWBIC

BIS

Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland

British Ecological Society

British Trust for Ornithology

Bumblebee Conservation Trust

Buglife

Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management

Eco Sapien

Field Studies Council

Gwent Wildlife Trust

Joshua Styles (plants)

Linnean Society

London Natural History Society

Mary Gillham Archive Project

Natural History Museum

Naturespot

Neath Port Talbot Local Nature Partnership

Plantlife

QGIS for Ecologists (also a Facebook Group)

Royal Society of Biology

talk:Wildlife

Tanyptera Project

Ted Talks (Ecology)

Tim Rich (plants)

UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology

Wales Biodiversity Partnership

Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales

Woodland Trust

 

Podcasts

Bat Conservation Trust "BatChat"

BBC Radio 4: Metamorphosis - how insects transformed our world

British Ecological Society Journals

Completely Arbortrary

Ecology tales from the field

Entocast

Environment Platform Wales "Curious Minds"

Flowerpot (National Botanic Garden of Wales)

Golden Grenades

Grubbing in the filth

Hidden Wings and Bloodlust

In defense of plants

Melissa Harrison "The Stubborn Light of Things"

The Bearded Tit

The Call of Nature

The Casual Birder

The Knepp Wildland

The Mushroom Hour

The Owl Hoot

The Wildlife Garden

UK Wildlife Podcast

Urban Birder

Wild Flower Half Hour

Wild Science

Wildlife Sound Recording Society

 

Reading material

Biodiversity Heritage Library

Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland Archive

Garden Moth Scheme Newsletters

Gwent-Glamorgan Recorders' Newsletters

National Forum for Biodiversity Recording [NFBR] Newsletters

National Biodiversity Network (NBN) eNews

Wales Biodiversity Partnership Newsletter

Natur Cymru (back issues 2001 - 2017)

Natur Cymru subscription (2020 onwards)

Monmouthshire Meadows Group

The Silurian (Monmouthshire Moth & Butterfly Group)

 

Live Wildlife Webcam Streams

Alderney Wildlife Trust Puffins

Countryfile Magazine list of webcams

CJ Wildlife Webcams

Dyfi Osprey Project

Llanelli Wetland Centre

Wildlife Trusts Webcams

 

Computer Based Activities

Enter your data on SEWBReCORD

Write an article for the Gwent-Glamorgan Recorders' Newsletter

Connect with other recorders on the SEWBReC Facebook group

Herbaria@home

Zooniverse

 

Wildlife Gardening

Bird boxes

Bird feeding station

Garden pond

Ground nesting bee habitat

Hedgehog highway

Hoverfly Lagoons

Meadows

Naturehood

Nectar cafe

Solitary bee hotel

Wildlife Trusts

 

Activities for children

BSBI

Bumblebee Conservation Trust

Marine Conservation Society

National Museum of Wales

RECORD

RSPB

Wildlife Watch

Gwreiddiau Gwyllt (Welsh language wildlife resources for different age groups)

 

SEWBReC Garden Alphabet Challenge

Hunt in your garden for wildlife beginning with each letter of the alphabet and write or draw them in the box. Use descriptive words if struggling with a trickier words, e.g. Quacking duck or Zippy starling. Download the pdf here.

 

SEWBReC Rainbow Garden Bingo

Suitable for young children, use this sheet to discover the rainbow of wildlife in your garden. Download a poster and see if you can tick them all! You can also download a worksheet for drawing your own findings.