We recognise that public rights of way and walking and cycling trails in Devon provide an opportunity for local people to take exercise and get some fresh air in these difficult times.
Please read  information and advice about using these paths during this outbreak.

Monitor your local river with the Westcountry Rivers Trust.

The West Country Rivers Trust is looking for citizen scientists to help to record their local river or streams for both good things (wildlife sightings) and bad (pollution, litter and invasive plants). Let WRT know you’re interested : wrt.org.uk/project/become-a-citizen-scientist and they will send you a link to where you can record your survey results. They also have some useful ID sheets.

Bee Walks

Join the Bumblebee Conservation Trust training days to find out how you can become a BeeWalk recorder. BeeWalk is a standardised bumblebee-monitoring scheme which involves volunteer ‘BeeWalkers’ walking the same fixed route (transect) once a month between March and October, counting the bumblebees seen and identifying them to species and caste (queen, worker, male) where possible. WestCountry Buzz is calling for BeeWalkers to help survey and monitor the nationally declining Brown-banded (Bombus humilis) and Moss carder (Bombus muscorum) bees on the north Devon coast. This is the last remaining area in the county for these two species. They were once found widely across Devon, but sadly they are now mostly confined to the coast.

More information at https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/west-country-buzz/ and their will be training dates throughout the summer for those interested.

Big Butterfly Count 2020-27th July-16th August

Visit the website: https://www.bigbutterflycount.org/ to download their handy butterfly ID chart. Sign up and submit your sighting!

At other times of the year you can also gather casual records and individual sightings through the i-Record portal: http://www.butterflyrecording.org/

To find out about the your local Devon group visit: https://butterfly-conservation.org/in-your-area/devon-branch

Butterfly Identification Guides

Devon Greater Horseshoe Bat Project:

From April-October, you can borrow an SM4 bat detector for 4days from 20 Monitoring Centres across Devon (in North Devon they are located in Barnstaple, Great Torrington, South Molton, Ilfracombe and Okehampton).  http://devonbatproject.org/devon-bat-survey/

Exmoor National Park -Backyard BioBlitz

For anyone who loves exmoor, wherever you are.

There are three stages to the project, (probably a continuum rather than one starts and the other stops).
1. Lockdown. Get interested at home, taking part in recording through iNaturalist. Creating an online community of people who are interested in wildlife and Exmoor. We'll have online talks and i.d. workshops, online content. Aimed at different audiences.
2. As things open up a little, As government guidelines change we'll encourage you to come at take part in wildlife surveying on Exmoor. Mainly adhoc, go where you like (on public rights of way), record what you see. But partially directed, walk this path looking for a particular thing.
3. All open, back to normal ish. Campouts, family events, onsite workshops, groups surveys guided walks etc etc. lots of wildlife fun and learning

 Record Invasive Species for Devon Biodiversity Records Centre

Use Devon Invasive Species Initiative ID Sheets  to identify invasive species in your area and submit your records directly on the Devon Biodiversity Records Centre site https://www.dbrc.org.uk/wildlife-sightings/

Alternatively you can use apps such as iSpot and iRecord

Nature's Calendar

What effect has recent weather had on wildlife? Does climate change affect timings in nature? Take part in the Nature’s Calendar citizen science project and help scientists discover answers to these questions. Simply record the signs of spring that you can see from your window or garden:

naturescalendar.woodlandtrust.org.uk

People's Trust for Endangered Species

Living with Mammals 2020 will run from 30th March to 28th June - watch for mammals that visit your garden and record them online.

River Fly

Website currently under maintenance. This is a great initiative: "The Riverfly Partnership spearheads an initiative to allow interested groups to take action that  will help conserve the river environment. This initiative provides a simple monitoring technique which groups can use to detect any severe perturbations in river water quality and puts them in direct communication with the local Ecological Contact of the Environment Agency (EA)" North Devon Angling News

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You can find a comprehensive list of citizen science opportunities for the whole country at : https://www.countryside-jobs.com/volunteers/citizen-science