Nature Counts and you can help with the accounting

Notts Wildlife Trust is using a new biological recording system called “Nature Count” originally pioneered by Sheffield Wildlife Trust. The idea is that people including members of the public can feed sightings into the software and subject to verification by the County Recorder for the Species it will be fed through to the Notts Biological Records Centre (keeper of the county wildlife database) and from there into the National database. In addition where it relates to Trust reserves into their database as well.

Whilst NWT are particularly interested in all records relating to their reserves, they form only a small part of our natural world. So we are interested in getting people to send in records from all over the county. Sites with Friends Groups like Sharphill Wood/Bingham Linear Park may arrange to set up a site specific input page that then becomes their site record (please contact MWalker@nottswt.co.uk about this).

But if you walk the dog there is no reason why you can`t also record what you see – rare records are important, but REGULAR records of common species are invaluable (and not that common). Firstly if everyone thinks its presence is understood, no one records it. Secondly just because someone has recorded it last year in the area, your record reinforces it`s presence this year. Multiple records matter, they build a picture. So take a notepad and pen with you walking the dog, visiting a reserve or just sitting in your garden, they all matter.

What you need for a record is

Date,

Species (a photo might be useful with rarer critters,

Numbers even if an estimate

Location (you can use either a location name, finding the location on a map search built into the software or using Grid Ref to pinpoint the record to an area).

Habitat type

Photograph of items if you are unsure of OR if it is something unusual.

You can enter a single casual record or create a list for a location. Reserves will have pre-existing lists set up for adding to.

The web site for Nature Count is https://record.nottinghamshirewildlife.org/