Inspiring Londoners to discover, record and protect wildlife
The Biological Recording Company designs and delivers natural history training and biological recording programmes across London, helping people develop wildlife identification skills, contribute valuable biological records, and engage with the capital’s remarkable biodiversity.
Our programmes are delivered by our in-house Naturalists, Keiron Brown and Joss Carr, who have extensive experience working with London’s wildlife, volunteers, and recording community. Together, they design and lead engaging activities that support local authorities, environmental organisations, community groups, and members of the public, creating lasting benefits for both people and nature.
Whether you’re looking to organise a Field Recorder Day, deliver volunteer training, engage local communities or develop a borough-wide recording initiative, we can create a programme tailored to your objectives.
Field Recorder Days
Building natural history skills and strengthening London’s records
Field Recorder Days are guided wildlife recording events that bring people together to explore, identify, and record wildlife in parks, nature reserves, and other green spaces. Suitable for beginners and experienced naturalists alike, each event is tailored to the site, audience, and project objectives.
Our Field Recorder Days can help you to:
- Engage local communities with wildlife and nature conservation.
- Develop species identification and biological recording skills.
- Train and support volunteers taking part in recording projects.
- Generate high-quality biological records to support conservation and decision-making.
- Explore the biodiversity of parks, nature reserves, and other green spaces.
- Increase participation in local, regional and national biological recording schemes.
Each Field Recorder Day is led by experienced naturalists from our team of specialist tutors, allowing us to match the expertise of the tutor to the habitats, wildlife and objectives of each event. We currently deliver Field Recorder Days covering subjects including entomology, botany, fungi, molluscs, earthworms and plant galls, and can commission additional specialist tutors to develop bespoke events covering other taxonomic groups.
Whether you’re looking to engage local communities, train volunteers or improve biological recording across your site or borough, we’d be delighted to discuss your ideas. Contact us to design a Field Recorder Day tailored to your organisation’s objectives.
Field Recorder Day projects
The Ealing Beaver Project is an urban beaver reintroduction project where the Biological Recording Company recorded the wildlife of the site prior to the arrival of the beavers, and is now looking at the .
The Hammersmith & Fulham Biological Recording Programme encourages residents to explore and record local wildlife through training and biological recording activities, helping build local recording capacity.
The Hogsmill Valley Biological Recording Project delivered earthworm sampling days and Field Recorder Days across the green spaces along the Hogsmill River, generating valuable biological records and engaging local volunteer networks.
Lesnes 500 celebrated 500 years since the dissolution of Lesnes Abbey and 100 years since the publication of a landmark book on the site’s natural history, using biological recording events to update our knowledge of the site’s wildlife.
Wild Tolworth is a community rewilding project by Citizen Zoo where the Biological Recording Company delivers biological recording events to help monitor the impacts of the various rewilding interventions occurring on site, with a specific focus on invertebrates.
Training Courses
Structured learning pathways that build knowledge, skills, and confidence
Our Training Courses are designed to help participants develop their natural history knowledge through clear and progressive learning pathways. Courses are categorised into five levels (Introductory, Beginner, Improver, Intermediate, and Advanced), making it easy to select training that matches existing experience and identify the next step in a learner’s journey.
Our Training Courses can help you to:
- Develop species identification skills.
- Build confidence in biological recording.
- Learn ecological survey techniques.
- Progress through structured natural history learning pathways.
- Support volunteers, staff and personal development.
- Develop specialist knowledge across a wide range of natural history subjects.
Our growing programme covers a diverse range of subjects, from introductory courses such as Biological Recording 101, Invertebrates for Beginners and Botany for Beginners, through to more specialist training including Winter Tree Identification, Urban Grassland Conservation and Mining Bee Identification. Courses are delivered by our in-house Naturalists and team of specialist tutors and can be tailored to the needs of individual organisations, projects and audiences.
Our Spider Identification Training Pathway demonstrates how traditional courses, online courses, Field Recorder Days and Specimen Study Days can be combined to support learners as they progress from introductory knowledge to advanced identification skills.
The screen icon indicates an online course, the footprint icon indicates a field-based course, and the microscope icon indicates a lab-based course.
Whether you’re looking to deliver a single training course or develop a structured learning programme, we’d be delighted to discuss your requirements.
London training projects
The Barnet Natural History Training Programme is delivering a series of training workshops and online training to improve the identification, survey, and conservation skills of members of the Barnet Green Spaces Network.
The Southwark Biological Recording Project helped residents discover and record local wildlife through natural history training and biological recording events, improving knowledge of the borough’s biodiversity and generating new records for greenspaces across the borough.
Specimen Study Days
Hands-on identification sessions using real specimens and specialist equipment
Specimen Study Days provide opportunities for participants to develop their identification skills by examining specimens alongside experienced naturalists and specialist tutors.
Held in an informal and collaborative environment, our Specimen Study Days can help you to:
- Develop practical species identification skills.
- Gain confidence using identification keys and microscopes.
- Learn from experienced naturalists and specialist tutors.
- Examine specimens that are difficult or impossible to identify in the field.
- Share knowledge with fellow recorders in a collaborative learning environment.
- Support the development of specialist recording skills.
Our Specimen Study Days can focus on a wide variety of taxonomic groups, including invertebrates, plants, or fungi. They can also be tailored to meet the objectives of individual organisations, recording groups, or projects.
Whether you’re looking to improve identification skills, support a recording group or develop specialist knowledge, we’d be delighted to discuss a Specimen Study Day tailored to your requirements.
Specimen Study Day projects
LNHS Invertebrate Study Days are delivered in partnership with the London Natural History Society at the Natural History Museum. This ongoing programme of free monthly Study Days helps naturalists develop identification skills through collaborative specimen-based practical experience.
Engagement Sessions
Accessible introductions to wildlife and biological recording
Our Engagement Sessions provide short, interactive introductions to natural history and biological recording for community groups and public audiences. Delivered as standalone events or as part of BioBlitzes and other public engagement activities, they are designed to inspire curiosity and encourage people to take their first steps into wildlife recording.
Sessions are delivered by our in-house Naturalists and can be tailored to a wide range of audiences and topics. For example, our Discovering iNaturalist session introduces participants to biological recording and the iNaturalist app, while Discovering Invertebrates is a guided walk exploring the diversity of invertebrate life and introducing participants to the major invertebrate groups found in London’s parks and green spaces.
Our Engagement Sessions can help you to:
- Introduce people to biological recording.
- Engage communities with local wildlife.
- Support BioBlitzes and public events.
- Inspire participation in nature conservation.
Whether you’re planning a community event, BioBlitz or public engagement activity, we’d be delighted to discuss how we can support your event.
Our Commitment to GiGL
The Biological Recording Company is committed to strengthening biological recording across Greater London and supporting the work of the Greenspace Information for Greater London (GiGL) – London’s Local Environmental Records Centre.
Biological records collected through our Field Recorder Days, training courses and other recording activities are submitted to iRecord, where they become available to GiGL and the relevant National Recording Schemes and Societies. This ensures that records generated through our programmes contribute to local and national datasets used for conservation, research, planning and decision-making.
Let’s Work Together
Whether you’re planning a community engagement programme, volunteer training initiative or borough-wide biological recording project, we’d love to hear from you. We can help you design and deliver activities that inspire people, develop natural history skills, and generate lasting benefits for wildlife across London.
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