Thank you for your involvement in Nature Up Close and Personal.[[{"fid":"14599","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","alignment":"right","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"speedwell flower close up","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"default","alignment":"right","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"speedwell flower close up","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":""},"4":{"format":"default","alignment":"right","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"speedwell flower close up","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"alt":"speedwell flower close up","style":"height: 256px; width: 300px; float: right;","class":"media-element file-default media-wysiwyg-align-right","data-delta":"4"}}]]
Here are all the different activities that people in the project participated in.
Noticing Nature
Go to a natural green space for 10 minutes – this can be your garden, a local park or anywhere with some nature. Use that time 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. Write down 3 good things you noticed in nature.
Citizen Science: iRecord Butterflies
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. 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. Watch the iRecord Butterflies intro video.
Citizen Science: Pollinator FIT Counts[[{"fid":"14589","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","alignment":"","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"insect on ragwort flower","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"2":{"format":"default","alignment":"","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"insect on ragwort flower","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"3":{"format":"default","alignment":"right","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"insect on ragwort flower","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"alt":"insect on ragwort flower","style":"float: right;","class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"2"}}]]
The Pollinator FIT (Flower-Insect Timed) Counts is a citizen science project aiming to understand how pollinator populations are changing across Great Britain. Watch the FIT counts intro video.
Other projects
Here are some projects run by other organisations that you might be interested in:
The National Plant Monitoring Scheme is a project for people who are keen to identify plants and take part in habitat monitoring.
Nature's Calendar is a project to record signs of the changing seasons - ideal as summer turns to autumn. Keeping watching those ripening fruits and the changing colour of leaves.
Use Bloomin' Algae to report algal blooms in ponds and lakes.
There are many, many other activities and citizen science projects that you can take part in. Search around and see what appeals to you!
Stay safe
- Participants 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.
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 | Contact