Welcome About Us Biological Recording Submitting Records Online Recording Form Local Groups The Nature of Fife Inventory

Getting Started

As well as being the first step for nature conservation, recording wildlife is hugely enjoyable for people of all ages and abilities. Wildlife recording can be undertaken individually or as a group and can be part of everyday activities such as watching the variety of birds that utilise the garden birdfeeder or walking in a local park. All that’s required four basis pieces of information – the four W’s:

o What did you see? This requires no special expertise: records of so-called ‘common’ species are extremely valuable as these tend to be under-recorded.

o Where did you see it? This can be a location name but a grid reference or an annotated map is even better.

o When did you see it? This is the date on which the sighting was made (ideally in the dd/mm/yyyy format).

o Who are you? It is useful to have your contact details in case we need to contact you about your sighting.

Any other information, such as whether the animal you saw was male or female, juvenile or adult, adds to the value of the record. And even records of dead animals are useful in understanding species distribution and dispersal.

FNRC have developed a number of recording forms for use in the field, available to download below:

Butterfly Recording Form

Plant Recording Form

Squirrel Recording Form

Wildlife Recording Form