Home Based Wildlife Resources

During the COVID-19 lockdown, many organisations and individuals are providing online resources to help both adults and children stay connected with nature. Below is a list of resources collated by SEWBReC; if you have suggestions for us to add, please let us know via email to info@sewbrec.org.uk.

Online Lectures and Talks

Linnean Society YouTube channel (various natural history lectures)

Averting the Insect Apocalypse by Dave Goulson

Bees in your garden Q&A

Identifying Common Garden Bees

Moth Trap Live

Immature Stages - a New Dimension to Butterfly Recording? by Peter Eeles

Life Cycles of British Butterflies by Peter Eeles

Conserving the little things that run the world by Dr Ed Turner

Home Wildlife by Chris Cathrine

The Secret Life of Clarke's Mining Bee (Andrena clarkella) by Liam Olds

Dr Mary Gillham presented documentaries: Behind the Dark Cloud and A County's Awakening

Tim's Botanical Riches

British Ecological Society's Ecology Live presentations

Skomer Live videos (via WTSWW Facebook page)

Field Studies Council's Virtual Meetups

NatureMetrics Webinar: Environmental DNA

Botanical ID videos (collated by BSBI)

The Woodland Trust YouTube channel

Eco Sapien YouTube channel

TED Talks including various ecology related topics

CIEEM YouTube channel

Natural History Museum YouTube channel

Bumblebee Conservation Trust YouTube Channel

Naturespot YouTube Channel

Tanyptera Trust YouTube Channel

Conservation of woodland birds in a changing climate by Rob Thomas

Neath Port Talbot Wildlife YouTube channel

Royal Society of Biology YouTube channel

Cofnod YouTube channel

The Urban Birder YouTube Channel

BSBI YouTube Channel

Gilbert White & The Oates Collections YouTube Channel

Plantlife YouTube Channel

Wren Wildlife and Conservation Group YouTube Channel

talk:Wildlife YouTube Channel

James McCulloch YouTube Channel

Online Courses and Learning Opportunities

Butterfly Identification and Recording Workshop by Anthony McCluskey

Spring Butterfly Identification Training from Chilterns Conservation Board

How to identify common bumblebee species by Dave Goulson

Urban Buzz Workshops from Buglife

Introduction to Dandelions by Joshua Styles

Free Nature and Environment courses on FutureLearn such as Big Data and the Environment

Free courses on edx including environmental topics such as Landscape Ecology

Free Nature and Environment courses from The Open University

SEWBReCORD, LERC Wales App and Aderyn user tutorials

What is a Biological Record by Eco Sapien & FSC

QGIS for Ecologists YouTube tutorials (also a Facebook Group)

CIEEM Webinar and Presentation archive, part of their Resources Hub

Amphibian and Reptile Trust training courses

Introduction to identifying and recording ladybirds part 1 / part 2 / larvae

Key to Common British Native Ferns

SEWBReC Macro Moth Course: YouTube video / PowerPoint presentation

SEWBReC Micro Moth Course: YouTube video / PowerPoint presentation

Live Wildlife Webcam Streams

Dyfi Osprey Project

Skomer Wildlife Camera

Curlew Cam

Essex Wildlife Trust Bats

Dorset Wildlife Trust Barn Owls

Alderney Wildlife Trust Puffins

Cumbria Wildlife Trust Badgers

Other Wildlife Trusts Webcams

CJ Wildlife Webcams (various bird species)

Timed events

Please see our event calendar for upcoming online events

Reading material

Gwent-Glamorgan Recorders' Newsletters

Garden Moth Scheme Newsletters

Garden Moth Scheme 2019 Preliminary Results [pdf]

National Forum for Biodiversity Recording [NFBR] Newsletters

Biodiversity Heritage Library

BSBI Archive

Free text books from Springer, including Ecology and R statistics titles

Online ID resources collated by CIEEM

BSBI News sampler edition (normally members only)

All issues of Natur Cymru

Home & Garden Based Surveys

SEWBReC Spring Garden Bingo

BTO Garden BirdWatch (currently free!)

BAS Lockdown Spider Surveys

Hoverfly Lagoons

ARC Garden Dragon Watch

Pollinator Monitoring Scheme FIT counts (garden only) (2020 Webinar)

RHS Cellar Slug Hunt

Big Garden Sawfly Survey

Garden Butterfly Survey

Leafminers to spot in your garden during April [pdf]

Leafminers to spot during May [pdf]

BSBI Garden Wildflower Hunt

Spittlebug Survey

BCT Sunset/Sunrise Survey

Stay Home and Count Bugs (Swansea University project)

Virtual Museum Tours

Natural History Museum London

World Museum Dinosaur Virtual Tour

Museum of the Earth Bee Exhibit (USA)

Other activities for adults

The Self Isolating Bird Club Twitter and Facebook

RSPB #BreakfastBirdwatch and NHM #NatureDrawingClub weekdays 8-9am

Mammal Web (running a camera trap or identifying species in photos)

Zooniverse

Herbaria@home

National Trust Blossom Watch

Volunteer for Buglife

Make a Bee Hotel (also a video guide by Tom Forward)

Create a willdife friendly lawn

Garden pollinator ticklists from Botanic Garden of Wales

Ragwort Study Project

Westonbirt Arboretum Wellbeing Activities

Chris Packham daily livestreams

BSBI Photographic Competition

Slow Ways

Grow wildflower seeds for the National Botanic Garden of Wales

Live Lockdown Bird Drawing classes with Matt Sewell

Submit a Marine Memory to Living Seas Wales

Write a newsletter article - lots of spring newsletters will be looking for content, including SEWBReC and NFBR.

Garden moth trapping - you could even sign up for the Garden Moth Scheme and add to the national knowledge of moth populations. This blog from the Natural History Museum, London explains how to get started.

Start a garden species list - it's surprising what you can find in your garden, add your records to SEWBReCORD and track your progress. You can share your findings on Twitter with #NatureNeighbours.

Data entry - if you're sitting on lots of data waiting for a rainy day, this could be a great time to get it digitised. Get in touch with SEWBReC if you would like any assistance or to discuss the best methods to get your records to us.

Identify specimens - this could be a great opportunity to dust off any old specimens and get them under the microscope. Who knows what treasures you might have waiting for you.

Wildlife Gardening - Lots of advice and suggestions are available online for improving your garden for wildlife (e.g. Wildlife Gardening Forum, Naturehood, Wildlife Trusts). You can also buy native plants online (e.g. Plantwild)

Connect with others on social media - There are lots of active wildlife chat groups on Facebook, including the SEWBReC group and Gwent Wildlife Spotting. Share your sightings and ask for identification advice.