Wildlife recording online took off over the summer of 2020 as the Bristol Regional Environmental Records Centre (BRERC) received twice as many records as usual on their online recording website: www.recording.brerc.org.uk.

A silver lining of lockdown was that lots of people spent more time watching wildlife, and recording what they saw.

BRERC Manager Tim Corner said "We had some fantastic sightings during lockdown of wildlife that people were enjoying seeing in their gardens and on their local walks. People sent in records of so many different things; for example the colourful Scarlet Tiger and Jersey Tiger moths which are increasing in our area, and species such as Hedgehog and House Sparrow which aren't as common as they used to be. BRERC will add these to the 2.5+ million records on our database, with all the other records sent in, and make the data available to anyone who wants to use it. BRERC's data is used by many different people and organisations; from members of the public looking at maps of wildlife on our website to university researchers and planners. The more records we have the better - the data helps to show changes occurring due to climate change and to show where special places and habitats should be protected. "