How to make and use a nature journal to record your wildlife observations

By James McNish

Keeping a nature journal is a great way to record any nature you see, from plants in the park to a spider in your living room.

Here we provide simple craft instructions so you can make your own journal, but you could also use an empty notebook or collect the information digitally.

If you keep up the habit, you will quickly build up a record of your local wildlife and surroundings.

Your findings could even help scientists monitor wildlife changes.

Crafting your own nature journal

You will need:

recycled card
paper
hole punch
stick
rubber band
scissors

Assembling your journal:

Fold the card in half and cut it to the same size as your paper.
Place a stack of paper inside the card.
Punch two holes through the card and paper.
Cut or break your stick so that it is longer than the distance between the two holes.
Thread one end of the rubber band through a hole and loop it over the stick.
Repeat with the other end of the stick.
Decorate your journal and write your name on it.

Now you are ready to record your plant, animal and other nature observations.

Observing nature

Record what interests you, in your own style. If you would like to contribute your findings to biological record databases to help scientists monitor wildlife changes, include:

What was observed
Where
When
Who made the observation

These are what will turn your observations into a useful scientific record.

A page from a nature journal, showing drawings of beetles and text — Your journal will reflect your interests, such as these detailed pages on beetles from a Museum trainee

Ways to use your nature journal

There are many ways to record your nature observations. Your journal will be unique to you, reflecting your personal style and interests.

Perhaps you like to include images - whether simple sketches, more detailed colourful drawings or photos that you've taken and printed out. You might prefer to write long, detailed descriptions or include a more diary-like account with records of feelings and emotions.

You can even stick in small collected items that you find or add pressed flowers. Use whatever tools work best for you.

Wildlife observation ideas

What kinds of observations should you make? Again, this depends on your interests, where you are and the time you have available.

You could note down:

The birds you see and hear in your garden
Wildlife you spot from a window in your home
A list of species you find on a favourite walk
Animal behaviour, such as insects mating, fighting and pollinating plants
Changes in trees or plants - when they bud, flower and fruit

You could actively search for and examine animals in your garden by making a pitfall trap to catch insects and other minibeasts or making a light trap to spot night-flying insects .

Insects and their behaviours can be fascinating to study. This ruddy darter dragonfly (*Sympetrum sanguineum*) was spotted in the Museum's Wildlife Garden.

The importance of amateur biological recording

Even as an amateur, your observations can be valuable to science, says Steph West from the Museum's Angela Marmont Centre for UK Nature .

'The UK's National Biodiversity Network Atlasopens in a new window holds nearly 226 million records, covering over 45.5 thousand species, with most of those records coming from amateur natural historians.

'That wealth of data, supplied primarily by people volunteering their time and effort through watching wildlife, means that we understand our biodiversity far better than we ever could through the efforts of researchers and scientists alone.

'It is vitally important, particularly at a point where we know that our environment is changing rapidly that we continue to collate these records.'

Steph emphasises, 'Any record that includes who [made the record], what [was recorded], when and where is of value, no matter how common the species is. In fact, our common species are very often some of our most under-recorded species, simply because people don’t bother to record them.'

Sharing your observations of nature

If you'd like to share your biological records, there are many databases and schemes that you can contribute to. Find out more by reading our Introduction to biological recording.

Recording databases and apps

iRecordopens in a new window is a tool for managing and sharing your UK wildlife records. It is the most regularly used biological recording tool in the UK. Observations are verified then fed to the appropriate National Biodiversity Network. Data can be uploaded via the website or a mobile app.
iNaturalistopens in a new window can be used around the world. Your uploaded images are checked by an AI photo recognition tool to assist with identification, then verification is crowd-sourced from other users. Scientists use the database for their research. Data can be uploaded via the website or a mobile app.

UK Recording Schemes

The Biological Records Centreopens in a new window hosts a number of UK biological recording projects, from amphibians and reptiles to fungi. Find a scheme that appeals to you and start collating your records.

You can also contribute data to numerous citizen science projects, from garden birds to slugs. See the box at the bottom of this article for UK projects, or check out our Nature Recording Hub.

Getting identification help

If you are struggling to identify things that you've seen, there are various ways to get help:

The Museum's Identification and Advisory Service can give advice about wildlife, fossils and other natural history specimens.
The Museum has a range of ID guides and keys that you can use.
The iNaturalistopens in a new window app (Google Playopens in a new window or App Storeopens in a new window) or AI photo recognition tool can be very helpful to get an idea of what you are looking at. Just take a photo, make sure your location is correct and tick whether the specimen is wild or cultivated. Accuracy can vary, so use with some caution.
Organisations such as the RSPBopens in a new window and Woodland Trustopens in a new window have guides for their species of interest.

The sketchbooks of Olivia Tongeopens in a new window (1858-1949) are full of delightful drawings and notes from her trips to India and Pakistan.

Keep being curious

How can you maintain your nature journal habit? 'First and foremost, be curious,' says Steph.

'All of the most notable natural historians, including Pliny the Elder, Gilbert White, Charles Darwin, Dorothea Bate and David Attenborough have one key thing in common - they were and are endlessly curious about the world around them.

'As you can so often see from David Attenborough's films, that curiosity doesn't have to be about the new, rare or exotic, but can come from the most mundane, common species, if you only take the time to watch, listen and observe.'

If you'd like to grow your interest, there are many groups and societies around the UK, such as the Wildlife Trustsopens in a new window, which run walks, talks and courses where you can meet other people who share your interest and learn from them.

There’s plenty you can do online too. Facebook has many pages run by species-interest groups where you can get advice and help with identification, or follow interesting hashtags like #wildflowerhouropens in a new window on Twitter.

UK citizen science projects

Many organisations run citizen science projects. Their online resources often make them a great way to start recording. Some have already developed long-term data sets that help us to understand how our wildlife is changing.

Check out our extensive list of projects suitable for beginners or browse some highlights below:

The Garden Butterfly Surveyopens in a new window run by Butterfly Conservation is a great excuse to sit in your garden at least once a month on a sunny day and spot the butterflies that fly past, while contributing to critical research.
The UK Pollinator Monitoring Schemeopens in a new window run by the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology is a mini-experiment testing which pollinators are active in different parts of the country and which flowers they are visiting.
Working out any disease threats to garden wildlife is exceptionally important in our modern, mobile society. If you spot any ill or dead wildlife, you can report it to the Garden Wildlife Healthopens in a new window project so they can track the spread of pathogens.
If you want to study phenology (how wildlife seasonal events - such as trees blossoming - change from year to year), the Woodland Trust runs Nature's Calendaropens in a new window. You can choose to monitor just one event each year or you can monitor all sorts of plant and animal seasonal events.
The RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatchopens in a new window is a great introduction to garden birds. It creates a snapshot of our garden visitors as well as tracks changes from year to year.
The next step up from the Big Garden Birdwatch is the British Trust for Ornithology's Garden Birdwatchopens in a new window. This survey is carried out once a week, every week, so it builds a year-round picture of bird activity
For those of you who like to get out at night, the National Bat Monitoring Programmeopens in a new window has developed a suite of projects you can get involved in to help study some of our least understood mammals.

Stuck indoors? You can use your computer to take part in a wide range of digital projects. Check out the Zooniverse siteopens in a new window for over 50 active projects, from watching penguins to hunting for asteroids.