Useful Links
[Updated November 2022]
Blagdon Lake Information Websites
Owners of my favourite place in the whole wide world!
For over 100 years our lakes have given anglers the opportunity to enjoy fly fishing close to nature in peaceful surroundings. We strive to make our lakes an enjoyable day out at affordable prices and believe that we are very fortunate to operate lakes in such unique settings.
If you want to know what the weather's like before you visit, this will give you an idea of current conditions in the local area. Bishop Sutton is in the Chew valley rather than the Yeo valley and can be a degree or two colder than Blagdon in the winter.
Birding Information Websites
Latest bird sightings from Bristol & the former county of Avon.
Birds and Moths of Weston-super-Mare and Brean Down
Paul Bowyer's archive of avian and lepidopteran sightings for Weston-super-Mare and Brean Down. Specific birding sites covered are Middle Hope, Sand Point, Sand Bay, the River Axe, Weston Sewage Treatment Works and Brean Down.
Birdwatching at Oldbury Power Station
Pete Hazlewoods website with information from this site on the upper Severn Estuary.
The Bristol Ornithological Club (BOC) was founded, in 1966, to promote, encourage and co-ordinate the scientific study of ornithology in all its branches in the Bristol area.
RSPB Bath & District Local Group
This is the website of the Bath & District Local Group. RSPB local groups are a great way to meet friendly, like-minded people in your area while learning more about birds and wildlife.
Paul Bowermans website with regular updates from the middle Severn Estuary.
Somerset Ornithological Society
Website of the local county society with a very useful news page for those planning a day out on the Levels.
The Birds of South Gloucestershire
Iinformation about rare, scarce and unusual birding events reported from South Gloucestershire.
County news, sites to visit, trip reports and other information about birds in Gloucestershire and beyond, since 2000.
Local Natural History Groups & Records Office
The leading local charity working for people and wildlife from wildflower meadows to ancient woodlands, from green city corridors to reclaimed wetlands, Avon Wildlife Trust is dedicated to working with local people for local wildlife. Supported by over 16,000 members they look after 35 nature reserves and two visitor centres.
The main purpose of Bath Natural History Society is to study and enjoy all aspects of the natural world and to furnish detailed records of species distribution and numbers within the Bath area to the Bristol Regional Environmental Records Centre (BRERC). Members of the Society, including former President Lucy Starling, have carried out the Blagdon Lake WeBS counts for many years.
Bristol Regional Environmental Records Centre (BRERC)
Bristol Regional Environmental Records Centre collects, manages, analyses and distributes wildlife and geological data for the former county of Avon, now comprising North Somerset, Bath & North East Somerset, Bristol and South Gloucestershire.
The Bristol Naturalists’ Society exists to stimulate a greater awareness of natural history and geology in the Bristol area. It is a thriving and friendly Society with something of interest for everybody, young or old, professional or amateur. It is actively involved in a long term programme of education, research and conservation. Each year its talks, trips and publications are enjoyed by hundreds of people wanting to find out more about our Natural World.
Cam Valley Wildlife Group is an independent local wildlife group actively involved in wildlife conservation and enjoyment. The group’s area, with its interesting and diverse wildlife, is based on the catchments of the Cam and Wellow Brooks, and has the towns of Midsomer Norton and Radstock roughly in its middle.
North Somerset & Bristol Fungus Group
The Group meets regularly to identify and record fungi in North Somerset (Vice County 06). We encourage an interest in the importance of fungi in the environment. Our main activities are forays, which often include joint meetings with other SW Fungus Groups, and annual workshops. We strive to promote the conservation of fungi and their threatened habitats. Membership of the group is open to all individuals who support these aims.
The home of the Somerset Moth Group, a website all about the moths of Somerset, UK. The Somerset Moth Group was formed in 1989 by a band of local enthusiasts and recently made more formal with a constitution and member subscriptions. Our aims are to record and study the moths of this area and to promote interest in these fascinating creatures. The group caters for all levels of expertise, from the beginner to the expert.
With the help of volunteers and the support of over 22,000 members, we look after some of Somerset's most iconic landscapes and special wildlife. We restore, strengthen and connect habitats and green spaces on a landscape scale so nature can recover and thrive in the future. We inspire people and communities to put nature into their everyday life and stand up for the natural environment upon which we all depend.
The Mendip Society works to conserve and enhance the Mendip Hills and surrounding areas for everyone to enjoy. As a registered charity, we organise social activities on the hills for all our members including walks, special interest visits and talks. We also manage some small nature reserves and members are encouraged to be involved with these.
Home page of the WWT with links to local sites Slimbridge Wetland Centre and Steart Marshes.
Environmental Groups
We are the umbrella organisation for our 65 member Rivers Trusts across Britain, Northern Ireland and Ireland. We are river and catchment conservation experts with a wealth of data and expertise at our fingertips. Learn more about who we are.
The Bristol Avon Catchment is a unique and beautiful network of rivers, streams and lakes, with the Bristol Avon at its heart. Stretching 75 miles from its source in Wiltshire, to its confluence with the River Severn in Bristol, the River Avon and its tributaries are the lifeblood of the area and they are under constant threat. Bristol Avon Rivers Trust (BART) is working hard to protect our rivers for the benefit of people and wildlife.
Yatton & Congresbury Wildlife Action Group
YACWAG aims to establish and maintain nature reserves in the Parishes of Yatton and Congresbury for the benefit of the public, and to advance education in natural history and nature conservation.
National Recording Groups & Relevant Sources of Information
Amateur Entomologists' Society
The Amateur Entomologists' Society (AES) is one of the UK's leading organisations for people interested in insects. Entomology involves learning about insects and the environment.
Amphibian & Reptile Conservation Trust
The Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust (ARC) was established in June 2009, making its debut at the Hampton Court Flower Show with its Bronze Medal winning ‘Dragon’s Garden’. ARC was created around the core of the Herpetological Conservation Trust (HCT), in response to the wider needs of herpetofauna conservation, providing the UK focus for all aspects of reptile and amphibian conservation.
The Bat Conservation Trust supports over 100 local bat groups and 5000 members and works with volunteers, scientists, industry and government both locally and nationally on a range of projects. To achieve our vision of a world where bats and people thrive together in harmony our work focuses on discovering more about bats and how they use the landscape, taking action to protect bats and enhance the landscapes on which they rely and inspiring people about bats and their environment, engaging them in their conservation.
Botanical Society of the British Isles
The Botanical Society of the British Isles is for everyone who is interested in the flora of Britain and Ireland. The society traces its origins back to 1836, when it was founded as the Botanical Society of London. From its earliest days it has welcomed both professional and amateur members, and it remains the biggest and most active organisation devoted to the study of botany in the British Isles.
British Arachnological Society
Here you can find information on those fascinating animals, arachnids. Our emphasis is on British spiders but we don't exclude other arachnids such as Harvestmen (Opilionids),Pseudoscorpions and Scorpions. There are images, distribution maps, general and more specific information on the different groups and species.
British Birds Rarities Committee
The BBRC is the official adjudicator of rare bird records in Britain. It publishes its annual report in the monthly journal British Birds. These web pages supplement the Annual Report and also enable birders worldwide to keep abreast with the latest committee news.
The purpose of this website is to illustrate as many of these as possible, since they are poorly covered by popular field guides. True bugs (Hemiptera) are one of the major groups of insects found in the UK, comprising nearly 2000 species.
Within the BDS there are two main inter-linked areas of interest, dragonfly recording and dragonfly conservation. The first of these consists of a dedicated group of individual enthusiasts each collecting and supplying records to a Dragonfly Recording Network of Vice County Recorders. The purpose of these records is not simply to document what is present, but also to inform the second main area of interest, that of dragonfly conservation.
British Entomological and Natural History Society
The Society was founded in 1872 as the South London Entomological and Natural History Society and since its inception has always included amongst its members many of the leading entomologists of the day. Over the years the membership of the Society has increased to include not only residents of the London area but entomologists living all over the British Isles and abroad. The objectives of the Society are the promotion and advancement of research in entomology with an increasing emphasis now being placed on the conservation of the fauna and flora of the United Kingdom and the protection of wildlife throughout the world.
This site is the result of an on-going project, set up to photograph and record all the leaf mining fauna which occur in Britain. Use has been made of SLR and Digital cameras, as well as Scanners, in compiling this site. The leaf mining fauna include Coleoptera (beetles), Diptera (flies), Hymenoptera (sawflies) and Lepidoptera (moths).
British Ichneumonids - a beginner's guide (Natural History Museum)
With the advent of digital photography and social media, it is possible for experts to skip the keying and identify a few species from good-quality photos. With this in mind, we have been working with Dr Gavin Broad, lead curator of ichneumonid wasps at the Natural History Museum, London (NHM). We have distilled his expert knowledge into a guide that novices can use to identify a few of the readily identifiable species. This guide combines photographs taken in the wild of living ichneumonids with photographs of pinned specimens from the NHM collections. The pinned material enables us to point out small features that show readers the kinds of things that must be visible in their photos to make an identification.
BPGS - British Plant Gall Society
To encourage and co-ordinate the study of plant galls, with particular reference to the British Isles. A gall is an abnormal growth produced by a plant or other host under the influence of another organism. It involves enlargement and/or proliferation of host cells, and provides both shelter and food or nutrients for the invading organism. (from British Plant Galls by Margaret Redfern and Peter Shirley) Some well-known types of gall are Oak-apples, Robin's Pincushions and Witches' Brooms.
British Trust for Ornithology (BTO)
The BTO is an independent charitable research institute combining professional and citizen science aimed at using evidence of change in wildlife populations, particularly birds, to inform the public, opinion-formers and environmental policy- and decision-makers.
BWARS - Bees, Wasps & Ants Recording Society
BWARS is the national society dedicated to studying and recording bees, wasps & ants (aculeate Hymenoptera) in Britain & Ireland. There are around 7,000 UK species.
Dipterists Forum promotes the study, recording and conservation of true flies in the British Isles. Flies are amazingly diverse and varied, and studying them can be hugely rewarding. It is true that some are pests or disease carriers but most are beneficial, many are attractive and some are spectacular.
Birds freely cross political boundaries and so international cooperation is vital for research and conservation. EURING promotes international collaboration on all aspects of scientific bird ringing, particularly in Europe and along the Eurasian African flyway. Our work includes collaborative research, data sharing and scientific meetings.
European colour-ring Birding is a platform between the field-observer and the project-leader. Therefore it can not provide any details or life-list of your sighting. To get this information, you have to go through this website, find the project-leader and contact her/him. This website was created (September 1995) and maintained min. twice monthly by volunteer Dirk Raes, totally for free and during his free time.
Freshwater Biological Association
The FBA, founded in 1929 and a charity since 1966 (Charity number 214440), aims to promote the study and application of freshwater biology through membership services, research and information dissemination. As a membership organisation we work throughout the UK, with activities centred on our two sites in Cumbria (Windermere) and Dorset (the River Laboratory). Historically closely associated with academics and professional water resource managers, our products and services are nowadays being designed also to appeal to those with a general interest in freshwater biology, including young people and amateur enthusiasts. We are regarded as one of the country's foremost providers of information about fresh waters, including identification guides, training courses, scientific meetings and both physical and electronic information holdings.
A valuable source of information about European gulls, especially photos of ringed birds showing plumage changes and variation at most ages. Always worth a look, although the last update was made in 2013 according to the website.
The hoverflies (Diptera, Syrphidae) are a family of attractive and familiar flies that we all see visiting flowers. Gardeners welcome them because many of the black-and-yellow striped species have larvae which prey on greenfly and bacause of their important role in pollination. The National Recording Scheme, launched in 1976, aims to collate information about their ecology and distribution.
The IOC World Bird List is an open access resource of the international community of ornithologists. Our primary goal is to facilitate worldwide communication in ornithology and conservation based on an up-to-date evolutionary classification of world birds and a set of English names that follow explicit guidelines for spelling and construction. To keep up with the current industry of taxonomic revisions, the IOC editorial team and advisors update the web-based list each January and June/July. The updates include changes of recommended names or classification, additions of newly described species, corrections of nomenclature, and updates of species taxonomy.
National Biodiversity Network (NBN) Atlas
This is the National Biodiversity Network's Gateway. Use it to explore UK biodiversity data, as contributed by participating data providers. It includes records provided by Bristol Environmental Records Centre (BRERC) so is useful in a local context.
Grasshoppers and Related Insects Recording Scheme of Britain and Ireland. There are 27 native species of grasshoppers and crickets (Orthoptera) and a number of naturalised species. The recording scheme includes these and also the related species: cockroaches, earwigs, stick-insects and mantids. Over recent decades some species have declined, while others have expanded their distributions and, even, some new species have arrived. The Grasshoppers and Related Insects Recording Scheme was launched in 1968 with the support of the Biological Records Centre (BRC), to collect records of grasshoppers and related species, and map and study their distributions.
Royal Society for the Protection for Birds
We're Europe's largest wildlife conservation charity - with more than a million members and nearly 20,000 volunteers. Alongside over 200 nature reserves in the UK, we're restoring rainforests in Africa and Asia, saving albatrosses in the southern oceans and planning to restore vast swathes of the UK's countryside to its former glory. Our vision is a world rich in wildlife — there for everyone to enjoy.
The SRPG was set up in 1997 with the aim of forming a concentration of botanical expertise, to continue the long tradition of botanical recording in the county, and especially to promote vascular plant conservation. Priority is given to species of international and national concern occurring in Somerset, including those listed in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan and the 2005 Vascular Plant Red List. Sites and habitats are visited and the populations of the rare and scarce species are assessed for their strength, health and vulnerability. The mapping of plant distributions is a key function of the group.
The British Mycological Society
The British Mycological Society is dedicated to the promotion of fungal biology, as it is pursued at Universities and Research Institutions, promotes knowledge of fungal biology to junior and secondary schools, universities, and the public and is concerned with recording and describing the diversity of fungal life and with its conservation.
The Coleopterist is the leading journal for students of the beetle fauna of the British Isles. There is a very useful online gallery on the site, but as usual be careful about making photo identifications with out further reference to literature!
The Leaf & Stem Mines of British Flies & other Insects
About 900 British leaf, stem, twig, bark and samara mines are included in this account and where possible keys are provided for their identification by host plant genus.
Welcome to the new look Mammal Society website. We are the only organisation dedicated to the study and conservation of all mammals of the British Isles. Since being established in 1954, we have surveyed and monitored mammals to help identify population declines and vulnerable species, and have been the national voice campaigning for mammals to be considered, and issues effectively addressed, in conservation policy development.
Your online guide to the moths of Great Britain and Ireland. The aim of this site is to illustrate as many species of British moths as possible and to provide this information in an accessible format.