Become a nature detective

Explore your local wildlife and learn about UK habitats from the experts by getting involved in a nature survey.

Wildlife organisations up and down the country need your help. Try your hand as a nature spotter and help collect vital information about local wildlife.

Surveys can take from a few minutes to a number of hours to complete, and can be as easy as recording the dates that you see common species like bluebell flowering. This vital information can be used as real science for years to come, helping piece together how our wildlife is adapting to a changing climate.

Long-term surveys like the Woodland Trust's Nature's Calendar encourage everyone to record the times of recurring natural event, like leaf burst, bluebell flowering and first seen butterflies in spring to autumn events like fruiting, first leaf tint and leaf fall.

These records can be put together used to better understand the impact of climate change and other events across the whole UK environment. The science of recording these natural events over time is known as phenology.

Steve Marsh from the Woodland Trust explains phenology and how you can get involved in Nature's Calendar:

"The Woodland Trust holds records going back to the 1600s which show us year on year timings of spring and autumn events. From this we can see how the changing climate is affecting our plants and wildlife over a long period, and the possible implications that this brings for the UKs wildlife.

"Simply by recording when and where you spotted your first snowdrop or frogspawn of the year, we can begin to understand the impact of climate change on our native species. Anyone can be a recorder you just have to jot down the date when you first notice the event, go online and input the date. This information will then be fed in to the rest of the recordings we have across the UK giving scientist incredibly valuable information to work from.

"It's easy to get involved and there are lot's of guides online to help you including simple tree and wildlife identification kits, plus information on how to get started. For children we've got Nature detectives, which is Nature's Calendar for kids with lots of fun activities, and downloadable resources to help any young budding nature spotter to get involved."

Surveys for everyone

Whether you are excited about ladybirds, bats or bugs, surveys are a great way to brush up on your identification. But don't fret if you don't know a bullfinch from a great tit, the folks over at i-Spot are at hand to help you identify your finds.

Volunteers planting trees

So dust of your wellies and join one of the hundreds of surveys currently happening across the country:

General wildlife: Bioblitz, Make Your Nature Count

Birds: House martin survey, Bird Atlas, Swifts, Hen Harriers, Garden Bird Watch, Bird Track

Bugs: Scarlet Malachite beetle, Big bumblebee hunt, Oil beetles, National Moth Night, The Harlequin Ladybird Survey, UK Glow worm survey

Reptiles and amphibians: National Amphibian and Reptile Recording Scheme

Freshwater habitats: British Waterways' Wildlife Survey, Big Pond Dip, Wetlands in My Backyard

Mammals: Hogwatch, Molewatch, Great Stag Hunt, National Otter Survey, The National Small Mammal Monitoring Scheme, Know your vole, Bats and Lighting Survey, Big Bat Map, Living with mammals, Mammals on roads

Plants: The Golden Great Nut Hunt, Traditional Orchard Survey

Sealife: Adopt a Beach, Beachwatch, Seasearch, Pink Sea Fan survey, Crawfish / crayfish / spiny lobster sightings, Basking Shark, Marine Turtle, Jellyfish

More information of how to take part in a survey can be found on BBC Breathing Places.