Explore the rich and varied wildlife of your local area and share your wildlife sightings with the Wildlife Trust
WildWalks is a new website which helps people to record their local wildlife. It has been developed by The Wildlife Trusts, in partnership with the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO).
...the more we know about what’s happening to our wildlife, the better we are able to protect it.
Please note: To help WildWalks at this early stage, The Wildlife Trusts are welcoming user's feedback on their experience. Please share your thoughts at wildwalks@wildlifetrusts.org
Woodlands are a great place to walk and look for wildlife at any time of year. We have added some template walks on the WildWalks website as examples to start you off on a woodland adventure. Note the species and habitats you see and help us to monitor important and threatened wildlife. This will help with our ground-breaking Living Landscapes work to make local spaces for nature bigger, better and more joined up.
How to get involved
Step 1: Visit and register at www.wild-walks.org
Step 2: Plan your WildWalk – follow our easy-to-use guide
Step 3: Take note of the plants and animals you see during your WildWalk
Step 4: Upload your sightings to www.wild-walks.org
Step 5: Plan a new walk, or repeat your walk, and create some new wildlife recordings
Get walking and enjoy our wonderful wildlife
Using a simple online mapping tool, WildWalks helps you to create walks across our three counties and beyond - wherever Wildlife Trusts are undertaking landscape-scale conservation.
Record sightings of plants and animals along your WildWalk and help us to build up a picture of how our work to restore nature is affecting wildlife. If you repeat the walk, and keep noting what you see, you will help us to track how wildlife changes and responds to conservation management over time. This is incredibly important for us to know whether we are achieving our long-term vision for Living Landscapes.
You don’t need to have recorded wildlife before
WildWalks is designed to allow anyone - whatever their ability to monitor the plants and animals which they feel comfortable with. Why not go out and look for spring flowers in our woodlands or look for woodland birds such as lesser spotted woodpeckers.
When you’re out and about, keep your eyes peeled for wildlife. You may want to take a field guide with you, or simply take a photo of what you see to look up later – whatever your method, the records will be useful. You can use our A-Z Wildlife Guide to help you identify the plants and animals you see.
What we will do with your sightings?
WildWalks aims to develop our understanding of the impact of our landscape-scale conservation work.
We will use the records to study the impacts of our work to protect wildlife in our Living Landscape areas. Ultimately, it will help us to manage our species, habitats and landscapes in a better way.
Local Biological Records Centre will help us to verify sightings. Some records may be submitted to the National Biodiversity Network to support recording on a national scale.
So, enjoy your time out in our wonderful and wildlife-rich Living Landscapes and don’t forget to take a notepad or camera with you – any sightings you can record, whether common or rare, are extremely important to us.
Need help using WildWalks?
No problem, follow the link to our WildWalks help page which includes video demonstrations and a step-by-step guide to help you register and navigate your way around WildWalks. You can also find a selection of frequently asked questions. Alternatively, you can email us at wildwalks@wildlifetrusts.org and we will try to get back to you as soon as possible.
Using a simple online mapping tool, WildWalks enables people to create walks across local Living Landscape projects - these are the Trust's key areas for nature conservation in our three counties - and record sightings of plants and animals along the way.
Downloads
| Filename | File size |
|---|---|
| Wild Walks step by step guide.pdf | 169.8 KB |
