WHAT TECHNIQUES AND WHEN?

The easiest technique is just to look everywhere. You will be surprised how much you can find, particularly if you look in lots of different microhabitats – feeding on the flowers, hiding underneath leaves, swimming in the pond, hiding under the rocks, behind that bag of compost, even resting in the corners of the shed, if you dare to look there.

There are a variety of ways to capture wildlife if you want to take a closer look (see equipment information), but not all will be relevant all the time. Put out a moth trap overnight, and if you fancy sitting out with it for a while, take the opportunity to listen out for wildlife – can you hear any calling birds?

Make sure to check your trap early in the morning, particularly if the weather is hot, otherwise the moths will get too warm and start trying to fly away.

Hot afternoons are good for seeing butterflies, but they will be flying around which makes them harder to identify or photograph.

It can be interesting to do bioblitzes in different seasons, to see the change in species found. This is particularly true for moth-trapping, when the species caught can vary greatly across just a few weeks. It’s possible to undertake a bioblitz at any time of year, though it will be difficult to find many invertebrates in the depths of winter.

How do I identify what I’ve found?

A huge range of identification books, websites and apps is available. Unless you’re going to focus on a couple of specific groups, most general garden wildlife books will do the job. The FSC fold-out guides are also handy, such as ‘Top 50 Garden Birds’, ‘Garden Bugs and Beasties’ or ‘Butterflies of Britain and Ireland’.

If you have a smartphone, you could use the Seek app, which will try to identify wildlife from a photo you’ve taken. Some of the iRecord apps are specific to groups of wildlife, including ladybirds, butterflies, grasshoppers and bush-crickets. There are numerous plants and bird ID apps too.

If you want to seek out help from experts and amateur naturalists, you could e-mail a relevant recording scheme, or ask for help on social media. There’s a Facebook group (or two, or three) for almost every type of wildlife group you could encounter in your garden.

What should I do with my records?

If you’re looking at a range of wildlife, it’s probably best to submit all your records to one overarching recording site, such as iRecord. Here they are verified by experts, and then become available to specific recording schemes and to county recorders. iRecord is available as an app on both Apple and Google Play Stores, and there’s a website to submit to as well.