Citizen science projects and nature recording
Recording sightings is important and the data that is collated is very useful to the monitoring of species across the borough, county and country. Data can be shared with different organisations and researchers and used to make changes to help target biodiversity management and conservation work. In addition, this data can be used to monitor invasive non-native species distributions and allows management plans to be developed to remove and manage them.
Two recording systems are iRecord or iNaturalist which can be used to record encounters with any species your see around the borough.
Our local records office is Lancashire Environment Record Network (LERN).
Citizen Science projects make use of interested individuals and groups who take part in organised activities to help compile data for an organisation. Two of the most well-known are the RSPB's 'Big Garden Birdwatch' and Butterfly Conservations Big Butterfly Count But there are many, many, more projects you can get involved with in the UK and overseas and not confined to nature.
Check out these sites for some more ideas: