There is an enormous range of wildlife surveys which cover abroad range of species and require different levels of expertise. Most will ask you to record either a single or a group of species for a given period of time. This may be the birds in your garden on a given day or the butterflies in your garden in June, but very few will ask to you record the wildlife you see at a particular place throughout the year.

We are familiar with the idea that different plants flower at different times of year and the same applies to animals too, we can find butterflies in the summer and frog spawn from February onwards. If we only recorded what we found in June and July we would miss all the wildlife which is only found in the spring and autumn. This approach can be very rewarding - a local naturalist recorded 283 species of insects in his garden in a 3 year period!

The My Patch project is about about the wildlife on our doorstep, discovering what animals and plants we can find at a particular site throughout the year. We would like to know about the wildlife you see on a regular basis, the common species as well as the more unusual. It is easy to take part, whether an expert or a beginner, you contribution will help us understand more about the communties of wildlife that are present in your neighbourhood.

If you are new to wildlife watching and would like to start with a less demanding survey you might like to try Garden Watch