Five days left to upload and identify all the observations you made during the City Nature Challenge 2026 weekend (24–27 April)! We’ve smashed last year’s total, and you can explore the amazing wildlife recorded across the area so far - like this Slowworm observation by @JamesBenwell (on iNat).

My first Large Red Damselfly this year, seen at Hill Hook LNR. Looking forward to seeing them in the garden soon. @britishdragonflies.bsky.social @ecorecord.bsky.social

That’s it! The City Nature Challenge 2026 recording period is over 🌿 As of now, our area has made over 10,700 observations spanning around 1,200 species! An amazing effort for such a short period. But it’s not over yet! We still have until 10 May to upload and identify observations.

Tomorrow marks the start of the global four-day recording event, City Nature Challenge! Join in either independently or at one of our events: - Witton Lakes (24th) iNaturalist training & guided walk - Smestow Valley (25th) wildflower walk - Warley Woods (27th) bioblitz Happy recording! 🤳🐦‍⬛

Today we kicked off our City Nature Challenge activities, with an iNaturalist training session and wildlife walk at Handworth Park! It was great to see so many people using iNaturalist to record the park's wildlife!

Join us on the 22nd April for a pre-City Nature Challenge event in Handsworth Park! The workshop will involve a talk introducing you to iNaturalist and CNC, followed by a guided wildlife recording walk! Book via the link below: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bosf-celeb...

🌿 One week to go until the City Nature Challenge! 🌿 Check out the events happening across Birmingham & the Black Country via our 2026 events poster. Event details & links on our CNC webpage (link in comments). Grab your phone, head outside, and spot local wildlife! 🌍📸

🌿 One week to go until City Nature Challenge! Check out these two events on Fri 24th: 📍 Salford Park, Birmingham (BCC Rangers) www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=... 📍 Saltwells NR, Dudley (Time2Breathe) www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=... Photo: danielsalinas00 on iNaturalist

🌳Its officially 10 days until the start of the City Nature Challenge!🌳 This year its running from the 24th-27th April. You can take part by taking photos or recording sound of any wild species and uploading them to iNaturalist by 10th May. Stay tuned for info about planned CNC recording events!

Few pics of the 2 Ring Ouzels at Lutley Wedge, West Mids today.

One of the largest bees I’ve ever seen, a female Bombus vestalis (Southern or Vestal Cuckoo Bee) in the garden yesterday. #bees #bumblebees @ecorecord.bsky.social @bumblebeetrust.bsky.social

Could this #spider possibly be Araniella displicata? Found in my Sutton Coldfield garden 6/4/26, nearest record I can find is from Hinkley (Leics). Abdominal markings are rather faint, but colour seems right. @britishspiders.bsky.social

I love the weird faces of Criorhina ranunculi, seen at Sarehole Mill #UKwildlife #Diptera #flies

This looks good: "We are hosting a Showcase evening of our work on Friday 10th April- 6-8pm and we'd love you to come along! This project combines our passion for Black Country heritage, natural history and design. We present... Siluria! A deep-dive into the Black Country's Tropical past!"

Only 2 weeks or so to go until Birmingham and the Black Country takes part in the City Nature Challenge! This one looks to be the biggest ever with about 790 city areas worldwide taking part in the global wildlife recording challenge, including a record 29 from the UK!

If you’re passionate about wildlife recording and enjoy introducing others to iNaturalist, you might consider becoming an iNaturalist Ambassador. It’s a voluntary role supporting events (e.g. bioblitzes) and helping others make and ID observations. More info: www.inaturalist.org/pages/ambass...

Join us this Earth Day at Handsworth Park for a free session on using iNaturalist for biological recording. Includes iNaturalist training, an intro to EcoRecord, and a guided walk - perfect prep for City Nature Challenge 2026. 22 April, 11am–1pm Book: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bosf-celeb...

Siskin at the garden feeder again - you don't see any for months then they are all over the place!! Birmingham UK - 22-03-26 #birds #ukbirding #uknature #ukwildlife #nature #ornithology #photography #birdphotography #canon #naturephotography

Taken at Winterbourne House Birmingham today, any ideas what it is? #bugs

A muntjac on University of Birmingham campus this morning

In case you missed our recent online workshop, which explored how to use iNaturalist and how to incorporate wildlife recording into a City Nature Challenge BioBlitz event, there is an online recording here: youtu.be/BXfQ24fivm0

Join us in four days for our Lunch & Learn introduction to iNaturalist to learn how to use the app to identify and record species, contribute to citizen science, and use the platform during wildlife recording events. Grab your free spot via the link below. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/inaturalis...

Join us on the 20th March for a beginner’s guide to using iNaturalist for wildlife recording and citizen science. Sign up for free at: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/inaturalis...

Following the results from our Feb recording challenge, 28 Birds Later, we thought we'd share some of our favourite photos from this year. Thanks again to everyone who took part! 🦆 BlueSky only allows 4 photos per post — for more of our favourites, visit our Insta @ecorecording or FB @ecorecord

Thanks to everyone who joined our February recording challenge, 28 Birds Later 🐦 Together you logged 844 observations across 83 bird species — 319 more than last year! Congrats to everyone who recorded 28+ species 👏 For the full results follow the link below: uk.inaturalist.org/observations...

Its that time of the year - SpawnWatch time! 🐸 Take part in our 2026 SpawnWatch survey and let us know if you spot frog or toad spawn in ponds across Birmingham and the Black Country.💦 Submit your sightings through this form: wildlifetrusts.wufoo.com/forms/zy45lw...

This weekend is a great chance to take part in our 28 Birds Later recording challenge! Try to record 28 different bird species during the month of Feb. 🦆🦚 Visit the iNaturalist page for the rules and to check out what other people have already spotted! uk.inaturalist.org/projects/28-...

We will be taking part in the 2026 City Nature Challenge, along with over 500 other urban areas worldwide! If your area doesn't already take part, you still have time to register! (until 30th January!) For more info, visit www.citynaturechallenge.org/organizers

Date for your diary! Read more about the City Nature Challenge and how to take part here: www.bbcwildlife.org.uk/CityNatureCh... (page yet to be updated for 2026)

Its almost time for our annual challenge, 28 Birds Later! 🦉 Try to record 28 different bird species during February in Birmingham and the Black Country! 🦆 Add your records to iNaturalist (both photos & audio count) via the link below, and check out the rules. uk.inaturalist.org/projects/28-...

Read reports from some of the Birmingham and Black Country Invertebrate Group surveys from last year, plus other updates: mailchi.mp/10b4765cac7c...

While the snow might be disrupting your day, its a great opportunity to check what wildlife has been exploring your garden! Here are some fox tracks spotted this morning! 🦊 www.wildlifetrusts.org/how-identify...

It's the final West Midlands Recording League Table of the Year! There's been a bit of change since last time, with Wolverhampton rising to 4th in the league by number of species! Solihull had a good month with the biggest increase in species (161) and biggest % increase in Observations (37%).

As the days get colder, our resident birds are joined by migrants fleeing the harsher weather of northern and eastern Europe. Redwings and fieldfares arrive in their masses, seeking out berries that provide a vital winter food source. This Fieldfare was spotted by @jsmithy1943 on iNaturalist.

Looking to grow your species ID skills? Join the list for the upcoming iNaturalist ID-a-thon event - a global initiative from mid-December to mid-January to help identify observations from around the world! For more info, join the mailing list at cdn.forms-content.sg-form.com/329e8835-c55...

Mild, wet weather means fungal fruiting bodies are popping up everywhere! Here's a few we found in Walsall. We think these are Hare'sfoot Inkcap, Alder Bracket and Spectacular Rustgill fungi.

The leaves are brown and the sky is grey, but there’s still plenty of wildlife to discover! Here are a few autumn sightings from our area, shared on iNaturalist this week: 1. Collared Earthstar (alexexploring on iNaturalist) 2. Knot Grass Moth (delrington) 3. Orange Peel Fungus (avoidasher)

Here's the latest West Midlands Wildlife Recording League Leaderboard! Places are ranked by number of species observed in each area in 2025 on iNaturalist. To take part, simply upload photos of wildlife you see using the free iNaturalist app/website!

One more 2025 Invertebrate Survey date? Oh go on then! mailchi.mp/636f2fb32a78...

Last Saturday we went hunting for Tigers at Shire Oak Park in Walsall and we found this wonderful Green Tiger Beetle, which is a heathland specialist. The survey was being carried out by B&BC Invertebrate Group as part of the Wild Walsall Project, made possible by the National Lottery Heritage Fund

Next week we have, not one, but TWO upcoming wildlife events: WEDS: Wildlife Walk & iNaturalist training session at Pelsall Common 🦋🌼🐦‍⬛📱 SAT: Invertebrate survey at Shire Oak Park 🐝🦗 Details here: mailchi.mp/9784bbbf5bdd...

Exciting News! We have now expanded our iNaturalist Wildlife Recording League to include some other towns and cities in the West Midlands region! Which place will record the most wild species by the end of 2025? It's currently very tight at the top!

Happy Black Country Day! Have you spotted this 'Black-Country' coloured moth this year? If so please let us know!

#InsectWeek There are almost 300 species of hoverfly in the UK. They are important pollinators and consumers of aphids, and although some of them might look like wasps, they are actually harmless! Many species are quite easy to identify - here's a selection below:

It's Insect Week! To celebrate we thought we'd share with you some of the interesting wetland beetles that we recorded on our field Visit to Ryder's Mere in Pelsall last Saturday. Thanks to Mark Webster for the brilliant photos!

We had a great time exploring Goscote Valley on Wednesday! We were there carrying out a B&BC Invertebrate Group survey and highlights included tons of ladybirds and yellow and black longhorn beetles, as well as lots of day-flying moths.

Help us track Bell Heather and Cross-leaved Heath in Walsall! They may be present in heathy sites such as: Pelsall North Common, Rough Wood Chase LNR, Clayhanger Common and Shire Oak Park. Existing records of our Wild Walsall focal species are shown on this map: uk.inaturalist.org/observations...

Two more species we’ve highlighted as part of the Wild Walsall project: Bell Heather & Cross-leaved Heath! 💜 These heathland plants are key components of heathland, but are becoming increasingly rare locally. Tracking their distribution helps us target habitat work where it matters most.

This time of year is perfect for orchid spotting! In B&BC, there are records of 15 different species and one hybrid. See if you can spot some of those species using our quick ID guide. Here at Centre of the Earth, both the Common Spotted Orchid and the Bee Orchid are currently in bloom!

Help us track the Green Tiger Beetle in Walsall! Sites in Walsall where we think Green Tiger Beetle may be present include: Shire Oak Park, Beechdale Park and Pelsall North Common. Report your sightings either via the iNaturalist app/website or by emailing us at [email protected]