Wildlife needs your help!
Wildlife is in trouble and effective conservation relies on knowing the status of each species. You can help by logging your wildlife sightings on NatureSpot, either on this website or by using our mobile app. If you care about wildlife, record it! Data is needed for all species, common or rare. All records are shared with local & national bodies to help conservation efforts.
If you have an interest in wildlife but not tried recording, please give it a go.
Note that NatureSpot only collects data for Leicestershire & Rutland. If you record elsewhere, please use iRecord.
Getting started
Anyone can record, you don't need to know a lot about wildlife to get started. If you need convincing, read our beginners guide: Become a NatureSpotter.
You do need to register an account with NatureSpot, but this is free and quick to complete. Register here.
You should find the Submit Records form on our website easy to use. Though it might look a bit complex at first sight, most boxes are optional. You can hover the mouse on any of the blue icons if you need help. Visit our submit records guide page and watch this short video demonstration to help you get started.
If you prefer to record using your mobile phone you can use our app to do this. To set this up, go to Record with Our App. We also have another short video that demonstrates how to use the app.
What happens after I have submitted a record?
1. Verification check & notification
To ensure that NatureSpot records can be trusted, every submitted record is checked by a local or national expert. This is called verification.
You will be sent a notification when this has taken place. Don't turn off your notification setting or you won't receive these!
2. My Dashboard
You can view, sort and filter all of your NatureSpot records on your dashboard page.
3. Editing a record
If you need to add to or amend your record, you can easily do this from your dashboard page. See editing a record.
What and where should I record?
Initially, record the wildlife species that you can easily identify (such as Blue Tit, Daisy, Red Admiral or 7 Spot Ladybird). Take note of the red/amber/green ratings in the galleries - these tell you how easy it is to identify each species. Until you get more confident, focus on recording green or amber-rated wildlife species.
Record wildlife in places you know well, such as your garden, the local park or even your walk to the shops. Do record species you think are common! Sometimes data on these is surprising limited because they get over-looked - but so called common species may not remain common so need to monitored!
It is often not clear which trees and other plants to record as many are planted so aren't 'natural'. As a general rule, don't record plants in a garden unless they have definately arrived naturally. For more guidance read our guidance page for plant recording.
Is a photo necessary?
Except for birds, always try to take a photo and attach this to your record. This helps our verifiers to confirm that the species identification is correct, and if not, to let you know why.
You can submit up to four images with each record so its often helpful to take photos from different angles and with plants, to include different parts (flower, leaves, stem, etc.). The Recording Advice may give you more guidance on the feature(s) we need to see in the photos.
Record data
The wildlife records submitted to NatureSpot are held on a secure server at the Biological Records Centre based at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. Every record is carefully checked by a local and national expert so we can ensure that NatureSpot data can be trusted. The records are then shared with the Leicestershire & Rutland Environmental Records Centre (LRERC), local and national recording schemes and the National Biodiversity Network (NBN). Only the name of the recorder is included in these datasets, other personal details are retained as confidential information by NatureSpot.