About recording

Because burial grounds have been a dedicated green space for years, sometimes centuries, their plant and animal life is often rich and diverse. We are encouraging visitors to burial grounds to record species that they encounter and these records can then be added to a database which will be accessible by all and will build into a picture of what has been seen, when and how frequently.

Anyone can make a recording by noting down some details – all records are useful, even of common plants, grasses, birds or other wildlife as they help to monitor the rise or decline of species over a period of years. Making a record is simple, there are just four things to make note of:

• Who – the recorder’s full name
• What – the common (or scientific) name of the species you round – eg. swift, ladybird, daisy…
• Where -the name, address and/or grid reference for the site you visited
• When – include the day, month and year

You can download a PDF form to use  or a Word version here.

1.
Add your records via iNaturalist

 

2.
Send them in an
e-mail to [email protected]

3.
Post them to us at 11 Drovers House, Craven Arms, Shropshire SY7 9BZ

We encourage most recorders to submit their records using the iNaturalist app. The app can help with species identification, the process is more user-friendly and you can get all the work done out in the field rather than typing up at home afterwards. You need to join the Beautiful Burial Grounds activity before submitting records and all of this can be done within the app. The records must be verified by an expert before they can be submitted to the National Biodiversity Network (NBN) Atlas. The speed of this process depends on availability of expert verifiers and varies according to species group and geographic location. Please visit the Burial Grounds Portal on the NBN to see if there are already records for your site!