We would like you to take part in butterfly recording with the iRecord Butterflies app five times over the coming week (weather-permitting) and to submit your records on the project website.
While you are doing this, please look and listen to the natural world around you and take note of the good things in nature. Thank you!
[[{"fid":"14596","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","alignment":"","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"person using butterfly recording app","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"default","alignment":"","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"person using butterfly recording app","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"alt":"person using butterfly recording app","style":"float: right;","class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"1"}}]]iRecord Butterflies is a free app that will guide you through the identification of any butterfly that you see in the UK and allow you to add your sightings to millions of other records that inform butterfly research and conservation. Watch the intro video.
Before taking part
Before taking part you will need to download the free iRecord Butterfly app and create an iRecord account in the app. The app is freely available via Google Play or App Store, and you can enter records via the website if you do not have a smartphone). An iRecord account enables you to manage and edit your records online and ensures that we can maintain high quality standards for butterfly records.
Taking part in the citizen science
Please try to take part five times over the coming eight days (at least once per day on five days), but you can take part more frequently if you would like.
- Choose a time when the weather is warm, dry, not too windy and (preferably) sunny.
- Go to a natural green space (such as a garden or yard, a park or the countryside) and spend 10 minutes looking for butterflies. You can make your records from a single location (e.g. a garden) or during a walk.
- Use the iRecord Butterflies app to identify any butterflies that you see, then enter a few simple pieces of information, such as the number that you saw and a place name (important so that the sightings can be checked on maps) and then submit.
- The app will automatically calculate where you are (using the GPS in the Smartphone) and provide a grid reference for your sighting.
Noticing nature
As you conduct your insect counts, when the opportunity arises, try to look and listen to the natural world around you.
- Take note of the good things in nature – the things you see, hear or touch, nature’s beauty, the emotions you feel, and reflect on what they mean to you.
- These can be the beauty of small things at any one moment or wider aspects that arise from attending to the diversity and wonder of the natural world around you.
- For example, it could be as seemingly trivial as noticing the song of a robin or movement of a tree in the breeze.
- Note: you should ensure that undertaking the noticing nature activity does not prevent you from counting the butterflies that you see in during the 10 minute period.
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We will send you a daily reminder email to ask if you’ve been able to take part and ask you to enter the 3 good things you noticed in nature.
Thank you for taking part so that together we can discover more about how engaging with nature affects our wellbeing!
Stay safe
- Volunteers are responsible for their own health and safety. As a volunteer, you are under no obligation to participate or continue with these outdoors activities.
- Never undertake any activity if you have concerns about your own or others’ health and safety. If you have any such concerns, you should stop the activity.
- Follow the latest Covid-19 government guidelines on outdoors activity in your area.
- If you are away from your home, it is advisable to carry a fully charged mobile phone in case of an emergency.
- When selecting a location for your activity, please keep to areas that you have permission to access, or that are publicly accessible.
- Consider any particular risks associated with your individual site and whether your individual circumstances and medical conditions expose you to particular risks.
- Think about and take action on what precautions are needed to minimise risks, including wearing appropriate footwear and protection from the sun.
The app is supported by Butterfly Conservation and the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology.
Nature Up Close & Personal: A Wellbeing Experiment is run by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, University of Derby and British Science Association, and is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council.