Wildlife Watch is back

Published on Tuesday 16 September 2008 19:12

WELCOME to The Scotsman Wildlife Watch, our quarterly nature survey, which celebrates the wide variety of Scotland's fauna and flora.

Our autumn Wildlife Watch takes place on 19-22 September, with a selection of readers' photographs and records being published in The Scotsman and online at scotsman.com over the course of the following week.

Plus, readers can email their wildlife videos to [e-mail] and a selection will appear on scotsman.com

Our Wildlife Watch coverage kicks off on Monday with the results of the June Wildlife Watch.

The autumn round of our quarterly nature survey will feature a special focus on fungi - but records of all Scotland's different creatures and plants are welcome.

For the autumn Wildlife Watch, readers are invited to send in their records of the creatures they see in gardens, in parks and in the countryside over the course of the Wildlife Watch weekend.

Look out for other special articles in The Scotsman this week, including the results of the latest round of the Wild Scotland photography competition, an update on satellite tracking projects and a look at the creatures readers may see roaming Scotland in the years to come.

Records sent in to The Scotsman Wildlife Watch, which is run in association with the Scottish Wildlife Trust, will be passed on to Biological Recording in Scotland (BRISC). These notes will be distributed across a network of local biological records centre and local recorders.

The sightings can help with conservation work and are welcomed by wildlife experts as a useful tool. Over time, it is hoped that The Scotsman Wildlife Watch will help to show how Scotland's wildlife is responding to our changing climate: the results won't be hard science but they will help to build up picture if the state of the nation's nature.

You can take part in The Scotsman Wildlife Watch by e-mailing your sightings and photographs to [e-mail] or by posting them to: Wildlife Watch, The Scotsman, 108 Holyrood Road, Edinburgh, EH8 8AS.

To be useful, your records should include:

The name of the species you see

Where you see them (including a six-figure Ordnance Survey grid reference or a post code wherever possible)

The date and time you see them

Your own name and contact details

Photographs can be useful in helping to identify mystery species.

The Scotsman Wildlife Watch began in December 2006 and, since then, we have had an excellent response from readers. In between Wildlife Watch weekends, which take place every three months, you can still contribute by telling us about your exciting wildlife sightings - post a comment on the message board below.