From the Worcestershire Biological Records Centre

By John Meiklejohn - Worcestershire BRC records manager.

I am pleased to report that there has been an increase in the flow of records reaching the W.B.R.C. Not a flood, but sufficient to make me recruit assistance to keep up-to-date with the entering of the records on the species map cards. The majority of these records have come from the specialist groups, moth trapping sessions, fungus forays, habitat surveys, Worcestershire Wildlife Trust reserves records and the like. Since the first meeting at Hindlip of parties interested in recording the wildlife of Worcestershire, I have handed out quite a lot of the W.B.R.C. recording slips to individuals. Very few of these have found their way back to Smite!

To help with filling in the recording slips, or sending in written records, keep the following points in mind:

Species names - for birds, butterflies, fish, amphibians, reptiles and mammals, common names are acceptable. For all other groups latin binomial names are wanted. (Including moths whenever possible, when checking identifications in 'Skinner'*the latin names are there!)
Grid references - These are vital. For more uncommon species a six-figure reference is needed. A postal address cannot always be converted easily into a grid ref. For the commoner species, or when there are several records from one area, a grid-ref. for the tetrad or 2x2 km square will suffice, e.g. SO 854532 becomes SO 84/52, i.e 2nd and 5th numbers of the 6-fig. ref. These are even numbers or are reduced to nearest even number below: SP 061395 becomes 06/38 (06 & 38 are the grid lines crossing at the lower left corner of the tetrad.
Location - Please do complete. Name of site, if it has one, e.g. Monk Wood, Kempsey Common, Bow Brook, otherwise a parish name.
Other points - Taxa = Group, e.g Flowering Plant, Mosses, Mammals, Reptiles, order of insect, etc, etc. For the commoner species 'remarks' are not needed.
Date - Please include at least the year of the record, if possible the month, and ideally the day as well.
There are a lot of common, easily identified species that are under recorded in Worcestershire. If in doubt about the identity of a less common species try to get it confirmed by an expert and record his/her name and, please, do send in your records!

* Skinner, B (1984) Colour Identification Guide to Moths of the British Isles (Macrolepidoptera). Viking

WBRC Home Worcs Record Listing by Issue Worcs Record Listing by Subject

	Species names - for birds, butterflies, fish, amphibians, reptiles and mammals, common names are acceptable. For all other groups latin binomial names are wanted. (Including moths whenever possible, when checking identifications in 'Skinner'*the latin names are there!)
	Grid references - These are vital. For more uncommon species a six-figure reference is needed. A postal address cannot always be converted easily into a grid ref. For the commoner species, or when there are several records from one area, a grid-ref. for the tetrad or 2x2 km square will suffice, e.g. SO 854532 becomes SO 84/52, i.e 2nd and 5th numbers of the 6-fig. ref. These are even numbers or are reduced to nearest even number below: SP 061395 becomes 06/38 (06 & 38 are the grid lines crossing at the lower left corner of the tetrad.
	Location - Please do complete. Name of site, if it has one, e.g. Monk Wood, Kempsey Common, Bow Brook, otherwise a parish name.
	Other points - Taxa = Group, e.g Flowering Plant, Mosses, Mammals, Reptiles, order of insect, etc, etc. For the commoner species 'remarks' are not needed.
	Date - Please include at least the year of the record, if possible the month, and ideally the day as well.