Guide to Volunteer Habitat Survey

Habitat Survey Guide

Below is all the information you need to get out on to the Commons and Fields and start recording what you find.

Pick Your Patch - see volunteer list at the bottom of the page
Please reconfirm or confirm the Common Compartment and /or Field you would like to adopt. The maps below show the location of the 11 Compartments and names of the Fields. You can email us [email protected] to let us know the patch you'd like to observe. If you have the time and energy to adopt more than one Compartment and Field, please state which ones when you register.

If more than one person adopts the same Common or Field, we will put you in touch with each other so that you can work out how you would like to work together and avoid duplication. For example, you might want to work together on the same day in which case you can divide up the area between you. Or you can agree to
alternate the survey periods.

Survey form
Please print the survey form that covers your patch. See right hand column

Guide to conducting the survey
Before you start out you might want to do the following:

Reference Books / Apps
You should take with you a reference book to help you identify different flowers, grasses, ferns, fungi, trees and birds. You could also get an app. iNaturalist seems a popular one. Take a camera or lenses (a phone will do) so that you can take a photo of a plant you cannot identify.

Clothing and refreshments
As you may be out for some time you should take a hat and wear long sleeves and trousers. Also, some water. You should also check yourselves for ticks when you get back home.
If you are planning to adopt Compartment 9, which is on the roadside, we suggest you also wear a yellow high viz jacket.

Bracken
We suggest you don't try wade through dense bracken areas. However it would be really useful to mention it in your survey notes, so we get a picture on where it is bad.

Starting the survey
We need to survey each Compartment and Field four times over the coming year. We suggest August and November in 2024 and March / April and June/July in 2025.
The first step is to get to know the boundary of your Compartment and Field. If the gate to the field is padlocked, please try and climb over it. If you cannot do this, please contact us via [email protected] and we will give you the combination number.

Then start to survey your patch from the outer area and work your way into the centre. Alternatively you might want to cover your patch using a figure 8 which would maximise coverage in the simplest way.

If you come across a wet area you might want to spend a little more time studying the area as they tend to have rare plants.

As you identify plants, trees etc put a cross in the box and alongside it the frequency with which it appears. You will notice that the survey form already has a cross against some species. These represent what Bruce Middelton found when he completed the base line survey of the Commons and Fields in April.

If you are unable to identify a plant, take a photo and send it to Sue Berrisford, who is a TLS Member and is a specialist in Ecological Monitoring. If Sue cannot identify it she will then consult Bruce. You can also contact Sue if you have any questions concerning the survey. Her email address is: [email protected] or call her on 07788 600673.

Completed survey form
Once you have completed the survey, please write at the top of the form your name and date the survey was carried out. Then scan the form, or if your prefer, fill in the digital copy and send it to: [email protected]

All the best,
from Bruce and the Trustees