Species recording is vital for us to check on our progress in restoring the nature reserve and to inform regional and national records. Everyone is encouraged to take part.

​For example in 2016-17, when Tuckmill Meadows was managed by the Berks, Bucks and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT), over 300 specimens of the Southern Marsh Orchid were recorded. After four years’ lack of management of the reserve, when Friends of Tuckmill took over, hand-weeding of the meadow and scything of the marsh revealed some 60. We hope that more orchids were there, but were unable to be seen. Hopefully, with the renewed management and restoration programme, these wonderful plants will become more abundant.

It's really important that we try to find out what species are present on the reserve. This doesn't just mean the rare and exciting but the common and everyday too.
PLEASE EMAIL YOUR SIGHTINGS TO [email protected]
HOW TO RECORD WHAT YOU SEE
It’s really important that we try to find out what species are present on the reserve. 

​Our species recorder notes all the different things seen and heard on the reserve and would love it if you could help by sending in a note of anything you see or hear. You don’t have to be really knowledgeable about the things you see. If you can name it that’s great and there are a few resources listed below to help. But if not a photo and a rough description means we can get a reasonable idea. 

All we need is:
Date and time of day – morning/afternoon/evening
The common name (or even better the scientific name if you have found it) – if all you can manage is a “it’s a bee of some sort” but you don’t know what that’s great.
Where you saw/heard it – on the limestone meadow, on the marshy area next to the golf course fence, in the fen area, in the copse, by the Tuckmill Brook, by the stream running down the reserve.
And a photo if possible – it doesn’t have to be a masterpiece – a simple phone pic is fine.

It doesn't have to be a rarity. All of the common things are just as important.
TO HELP YOUR IDENTIFICATION
There are various websites and apps that might help with your identification. Here are a few to start you off:

​Buglife has guides to identification and is a great place to find out about insects and other creepy crawlies:        
 https://www.buglife.org.uk/bugs/identify-a-bug/

BirdNET is an app for identifying bird song and can be found on your phone's app store. Great for identifying birds you can't see!

The Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland have a plant ID guide on their website: 
http://www.bsbi.org

PlantNet is a very useful free app for identifying plants.

Don’t worry if it’s yet another clump of nettles or a blackbird. If it’s part of the reserve we want to know.
DON'T FORGET TO EMAIL YOUR SIGHTINGS TO [email protected]
SPECIES RECORDER'S NOTES - CITIZEN SCIENCE
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Have you heard about citizen science? I expect many of you do the garden birdwatch for the British Trust for Ornithology. That is one well-known example of citizen science:  where ordinary non specialist people record what they see or hear and it is collated into a huge database.

During the pandemic several million people recorded daily whether they had any symptoms of anything. That was how the change in Covid symptoms over time was tracked. It was also very effective at signalling where a new upsurge was happening. So citizen science can be very effective.

There are many other examples where people without expert knowledge, but who are interested, can contribute. For
example, Bumblebee Conservation recruits “bee walkers”. I do this walking the same 1km track (the reserve is a very convenient size for this), once a month from March to October recording all of the bumblebees I see. It might look a bit daunting to start with but lots of visual information is provided for non-experts. It is also recognised that, especially initially, you are giving a best guess at identification. To start with the best I could manage was that it was probably a bumblebee!

Then there is Butterfly Conservation. They have a similar regular scheme and also an ad hoc recording page so if you see a butterfly you can add it as and when it's convenient.

The Mammal society has a phone app (Mammal Mapper) to record mammals that you see. Or how about Nature's Calendar from the Woodland Trust where they want to follow certain species. You could even do a local project and add it to a site for example BWARS (bees, wasps, and ants) will take information from a local project. Nothing to stop us doing that!
Click on any of the links to find out more.

If you send anything off please let me know as well ([email protected]).

It can all be as intense or gentle as you wish but why not go and add to the sum of knowledge!

Margaret Andrews April 2023
WHAT SPECIES WERE SEEN ON THE RESERVE IN 2021?
We started trying to note the species seen on the reserve in April 2021. From then to 15 December 2021 we have recorded a minimum of:
Birds - 26 different species
Mammals - nine species, plus a possible seven species of bat identified
Insects - 22 (of which seven were different butterfly species)
Flowering Plants - 34 (including sightings of the rare Southern Marsh Orchid)

The bulk of these records came from two people. Just think how many could be recorded if more people sent in their sightings!