nature’s Calendar

The arrival of spring is a good time for people to get involved in phenology, which for the woodland Trust – ‘is the study of seasonal changes in plants and animals from year to year, such as flowering plants, emergence of insects and migration of birds, especially their relationship with weather and climate.’

Through its nature’s Calendar initiative, the woodland Trust encourages people to record the dates of certain species during the changing seasons. The list of species you can record has been carefully selected so scientists can understand how wildlife is affected by weather and climate change. records from today can be compared with those going back 300 years.

‘Using Nature’s Calendar records, a research team at the University of Cambridge has found that the effects of climate change are causing plants in the UK to flower one month earlier under recent global warming.’

add your own records to Nature’s Calendar and become a phenologist!