Frequently Asked Questions

Yes – if you want to help record the wildlife of Leicestershire and Rutland and access the full website.

No – if you just want to view the species pages, galleries and information pages.

Registering an account with NatureSpot is free and quick to complete, but isn't necessary for everyone. Register here.

To log in to NatureSpot, you will need the username and password you used when registering. Remember the username is not your email address (or isn't advised to be!). You can ask for a password reset at any time. If you are still having any difficulty, get in touch by emailing info@naturespot.org and we will sort it out for you

See our short video guide on YouTube or visit the illustrated guidance page.

The species list only includes those that has been recorded previously on NatureSpot. Additional species are being found all the time so the list is steadily expanding. If you have found a species that isn’t on the list, type '+' and then select '+ new species' from the drop down menu. You will then be asked to to tell us what species you think it is and what evidence you have - write this in the comments box on the species row. For a new species to be accepted you will either need to send photographic evidence or a recognised expert must have identified it for you. We only add new species that have been identified with 100% certainty.

NatureSpot only collects records from Leicestershire and Rutland. However the national recording site iRecord welcomes records from all areas of the UK.

The most common reason is that you haven't selected the species from the drop down menu and have typed it into the species box instead. You must select it from the menu. As you start typing, a list of possibilities will appear in the drop down list - always click on the relevant entry on this menu.

If you left the form partly completed then returned to it after a break it is possible it timed-out. Try pressing the F5 button on your keyboard to refresh the form.

All submitted records are checked by our team of verifiers to make sure the identification is correct. If a species has been recorded that is unusual or rare we may email you for more information. This checking of the records is obviously easier if an image of the species is submitted with the record and for more difficult species an image and/or additional information is required (as stated in the 'Recording Advice'). For certain species, we will contact the County Recorder, or another expert, for their opinion.

NatureSpot’s website is linked to iRecord, operated by the Biological Records Centre (BRC) as part of the work of the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH), so all NatureSpot records automatically flow into the national iRecord database. iRecord shares this data with national recording schemes and with the National Biodiversity Network (NBN) who create distribution maps, as shown on NatureSpot. NatureSpot also shares its data with Leicestershire & Rutland Records Centre (LRERC), and also with all our County Recorders.

We may also make records available to the key land owners or managers, such as the Wildlife Trusts and local Councils. All this ensures your records add to the scientific knowledge base of UK species and draws to the attention of land managers the wildlife interest of their sites so appropriate protection and conservation management can be put in place.

Yes - see editing my records.

It is not always clear which species to record and how often. Do you record the Blackbird in your garden every day? What about plants in your garden or street trees nearby? Guidance from the BSBI (Botanical Society of the British Isles) has recently been published which helps to give some answers to these questions regarding plants, but most of the pointers can apply to other types of wildlife. You can view the full guidance here: BSBI guidance on what and where to record, but we have summarised the main points below.

• Do record common species, not just the notable ones you see
• Only record species that you recognise or can confidently identify. Don't guess or simply photo-match!
• In general it is sufficient to record the species found on a particular site just once each year
• You don't need to have been the first to see the species to record it - if you saw it then record it!
• Only record plants in gardens that have arrived there naturally and are growing 'wild'
• Plants outside a garden boundary that have 'escaped' or naturalised can be recorded
• Ignore wildflower strips and other seeded meadows - apart from 'weeds' that have colonised naturally
• You can record street and parkland trees but add a note with the record if you think it has been planted

There is a danger that species perceived as common are not recorded so we wouldn't know if their status changed (House Sparrows are a good example - they were at one time removed from the BTO's recording list as they were thought to be too common to matter). Our general advice is to record a species once for any location in a given year. This ensures that any search/filter of records for that site will include that species. In the wider countryside/urban area then either one record per tetrad (or possibly monad) is probably sufficient. Having lots of records for common species is a good thing - it proves it really is (still) common! How would we know without the data? So as a general approach, try to record all the species you can recognise on a site once each year.

iSpot is mainly aimed at helping people identify sightings but most records do not progress any further. NatureSpot is a localised version of iRecord, both of these sites contribute to the permanent scientific record by sharing the data with local and national recording schemes. If your record is from Leicestershire or Rutland you should submit it to NatureSpot to maximize the value of the information, if it is outside Leicestershire or Rutland you should submit it to iRecord. You do not need to submit it to both sites as they overlap.

LRERC is part of Leicestershire County Council and they collect and maintain every known record for the two counties. NatureSpot data is adding significantly to this database but records from other sources are also collected. The LRERC shares data from all sources with the County Recorders. Whilst NatureSpot has access to ORCA, the LRERC database, so we can view all records, these are not integrated into the NatureSpot database so don't appear on our maps.

Once you have submitted records or images to NatureSpot you can review these on the My Dashboard page. When you first open these pages, they will display all your records but you can then easily filter these to review a more specific list.

• Taxonomic Group - select the category to look at just records/images from one species type, eg. birds or butterflies
• Site Name - the filter will recognise part of a site name, eg. 'garden', to display your records from just one site
• Date From and Date To - this will display records/images within the date range selected

As well as the filters, you can organise your list alphabetically, or in date order, by clicking on any of the column headings. The first click will order them A-Z, then a further click will reverse the order.

Use the 'next' link at the bottom of the page to see the next batch of records in your list. After the first page, a 'previous' link will also appear so you can navigate backwards.

If you want to download your own copy of the list, click on Download Report and follow the instructions.

You can also view your records from the Explore All Records page. Once loaded, use the drop down filter at the top to select 'My Records'. You can also use the map on this page to see where and what you have recorded across the county. Zoom in to get more detail and use the '?' tool to select any square that you want to view the records for.

There are several options for you to opt into receiving email notifications about the verification of your records - see notifications.

Every record is checked by a verifier to ensure the species identification is correct. See verification explained.

Read our help page on Identification.

It is preferred that an image is submitted with your record - it is easier for our verifiers to be sure of the species ID. Species with a green ID rating don't always require an image but if you are new to NatureSpot try to add an image with all your record submissions. However species that are amber or red rated should have an image - unless your specimen was identified by a known expert who's expertise we can trust.

Your images don't have to be of an award-winning standard! Any image that allows the species to be recognised is fine. Note that for some species, the key features may not be visible in a general photo and here it is necessary to have an image of the right 'part' or at the right angle. It can be difficult to get a useful image with a mobile phone - put your hand near to the subject and focus on this (otherwise it will focus on the background). You can submit up to four images of each record so take photos from different angle or of different parts of the plant or specimen if you are not sure exactly what is required. The recording advice guidance for each species provides more specific guidance on what is required (note that it will take time to add this guidance for all species - but we are on the case!)

Yes! By submitting your image to NatureSpot you just agree to grant NatureSpot a license to use a reduced resolution copy of your image for educational purposes. See Terms for more details.

Usually no - your image will be automatically resized when you upload it so we only keep a low resolution copy. There is however a 10MB limit however on submitted images.

Most shapes are fine. However if you crop your image try to avoid long, thin images as these don't display very well. Unless you have a particular composition that you want to retain, it is best to crop the image so that the subject is centred and large within the frame. If you have a lot of background with a small subject, it won't be very clear when displayed as a small thumbnail on the web site.

Most bird nests are protected by the Wildlife & Country Act 1981 - some (Schedule 1 species) are protected by special penalties.  Photographing an active nest is deemed to be disturbance under the Act without the appropriate licence.  Not all species require a licence but all are covered by "recklessly disturbing" - it is a grey area with respect to common species but if the act of photographing a nest caused the birds to desert then an offence would have been committed. For this reason we do not normally publish images of nests containing eggs or live young.

Whilst it is common to find dead animals (such as road kill) and photos of these do provide good evidence, in some cases we may choose not to publish an image if it is likely to cause offense or upset. The image will however be retained with the record as evidence so do submit these.

All the images used in our galleries and on the species pages have been submitted with records. Therefore all have been taken in Leicestershire and Rutland (VC55). We very much welcome good images that can better illustrate species in these galleries but these have to be submitted with a genuine VC55 record.

The images selected are generally the best of those submitted for that species, however with hundreds of new images added every day we cannot always keep up with this selection. We try to include a few images for each species and particularly like to have images of males, females, juveniles, colour variants and other relevant life stages to illustrate the different forms that may be encountered. We also aim to display images that illustrate the key ID features so would welcome contributions that show these.

If you think one or more of your images deserves to be displayed then do let us know - it may well be because we haven't visited that species page for as while. Some regular recorders have volunteered to help with image selection so if you think you would like to get involved with this then get in touch: info@naturespot.org

The distribution maps we use on this site combine NatureSpot records collected on this web site with those submitted to the National Biodiversity Network. The NBN Atlas is an innovative website that serves as a warehouse for the UK's biodiversity records. Data is submitted to the NBN by hundreds of local and national recording centres, allowing an overall picture of a species' distribution to be mapped.

Each species page has both a Leicestershire and Rutland distribution map, with NatureSpot records as circles/dots and NBN records as squares. The UK map only includes NBN data.

As soon as you submit a record to NatureSpot and it is accepted, a new 'dot' appears on the map.

Most NatureSpot records have a 6 or even 8 number grid reference - equating to a 100m or 10m square. When the map is large, these very small squares wouldn't show up so they are displayed as a larger dot. If you zoom in, the actual size of the square becomes more apparent. The NBN data however is displayed as larger squares so we can't say exactly where the species was seen - just that it was found somewhere within that square.

There are several reasons:

• Not all collected records around the country have yet been submitted to the NBN. This is improving over time.
• Some recorders submit data to NBN with restricted visibility, so these records may not appear in our 2km squares.
• Other than for birds, there are relatively few people collecting records.
• Many of the smaller groups of animals are harder to identify so get ignored.
• Common species are so familiar they are also often ignored by wildlife recorders.

Whilst we don't have all the VC55 records in the NatureSpot database, we do display the National Biodiversity Network (NBN) maps which show records by tetrad. In theory this should give a good idea of the known distribution but it relies on NBN having all the records. A few national recording schemes don't currently submit data to NBN, though this is gradually changing. So for most taxa the NatureSpot maps do give you a good idea of overall record knowledge, but there are some gaps. LRERC has recently sent all its verified data to NBN (where there is permission from the dataset owner) - about a million records. This will be updated annually.

County boundaries are often changed to fit political ideas. Rutland has in the past been a part of Leicestershire, even though it is a separate county now. To avoid confusion and to provide consistency, all biological recording in this country adopts fixed boundaries based on the old Watsonian Vice Counties. In this system, Leicestershire and Rutland are treated as one area called Vice-County 55 (VC55).

Our Wild Places pages describes some of the best places in Leicestershire and Rutland (VC55) to see wildlife. Use the filters on the Wild Places map page to find sites near you.

As a general rule we only feature sites that have public access and have prioritised those places that are managed with biodiversity in mind. It doesn't have to the whole site that has public access, if it is crossed by a public footpath then this may be sufficient.

The species lists and image gallery for each Wild Place page are drawn from those submitted on our records form. This is done by matching up the grid reference of the record with the map we have drawn of site. Only records with a 6 or 8 figure grid reference are included, representing a 100 or 10 metre squares, and part of this square must overlap the site boundary. Whilst this may mean that a few records included in the species lists may have been seen outside the site boundary, they are within 100 metres which we believe is reasonable.

Yes! If you know of a good wildlife spot that we've missed out then get in touch and we will try to add it. It should have public access (at least a public footpath across the site or along a boundary). We may need help in identifying the site's boundaries so if you can help provide this information it would be appreciated. Many Wild Place pages are edited by one of our contributors so if you would like to get involved with this then please let us know.