Worcestershire Biological Records Centre

Finding Rare Species in the Malverns

This Heritage Lottery Funded project was completed in Autumn 2019. WBRC worked with The Malvern Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) partnership and Herefordshire Biological Records Centre to increase our understanding on the distribution and abundance of rare wildlife in the Suckley Hills landscape.

The Suckley Hills area lies in the northernmost part of Malvern Hills AONB, where it straddles the boundary between Worcestershire and Herefordshire. Here, the geological diversity and long history of settlement and small-scale farming has given rise to an intricate mosaic of habitats with traditional orchards, grazed pastures and wooded valleys interwoven with small fields enclosed by rambling hedgerows and flower-rich meadows bounded by streams.

This part of the AONB had been under recorded, with little information held by WBRC on the location of rare species within the landscape, and how their populations were faring. In order to increase our knowledge of the presence and distribution of key indicator species here the project:

Worked with local landowners to secure permission and undertake rare species surveys on their land.
Trained local people to undertake a variety of surveys including bat detecting, flora surveys and butterfly monitoring.
Encouraged local experts to undertake and support monitoring in this area, and pass on their valuable knowledge to others.

If you would like more information about what took place and what we found, you can download the project report here. Even though the project has now been completed we would still very much like to receive any wildlife records you obtain within the area (and the rest of Worcestershire!) in an effort to keep our database updated. If you do have any records please feel free to email them to records@wbrc.org.uk. For more information on submitting records to us please visit our Sending records in page.

Worcestershire Mammal Atlas 1995-2007

After the successful publication of Worcestershire's Mammals by Worcestershire Recorders in 2012 displaying records from 1995-2007, we are calling for records in an effort to fill in some of the gaps and provide better knowledge of mammal distribution in the county.

Worcestershire Recorders, Worcestershire Mammal Group and WBRC will work together to encourage increased recording of all wild mammal species in Worcestershire. All species are important to us - no matter how common they are (or are perceived to be). There were 433 monads (20%) with no mammal records at all in the previous survey period so we would really like to get this blank space populated with a more accurate picture of species distributions.

Records can be submitted to WBRC directly in a method that suits you, please see our Sending records in page for more information and downloadable forms. You may also be interested in using Worcestershire Mammal Group's online submission page which links directly to WBRC.

If you have any queries or would like help to ID mammal tracks and signs you find, then don't hesitate to get in touch with us.

Wildlife of Traditional Orchards

WBRC completed its two year Heritage Lottery Funded project in summer 2015. It aimed to explore the wildlife of traditional orchards and involved a programme of community engagement and surveys to raise awareness of the importance of orchards to Worcestershire's landscape and increase knowledge of the distribution and abundance of orchard wildlife.

Worcestershire Ancient Tree Project

This project ran from 2000 and was boosted in 2007 when Worcestershire Recorders were successfully awarded money from the Heritage Lottery Fund to take forward the work begun by John Tilt and Harry Green in developing a Worcestershire register of ancient trees.

This register is now held at WBRC and although the Heritage Lottery Funding has ended Worcestershire Recorders and WBRC would very much like you to carry on recording!

If you would like to find out more please see our Worcestershire Ancient Tree Project pages.