Anyone can enjoy looking at wildlife!
There is so much to see, all around us – you just need to slow down a little and look. There’s wildlife in all our gardens, in the park, in the cracks in the pavement. Just sitting in a chair by your back door, you’ll see birds and insects – why not start there?
Where to see wildlife in Groombridge
Groombridge is surrounded by wildlife-rich countryside so any walk in our fields and woods is a great way to see birds, plants and animals.
There are some special places for wildlife that you can visit without using your car:
- the RSPB reserve at Broadwater Warren is free and you can walk for miles on its paths (dogs must stay on leads to protect the birds)
- Birchden Woods and Harrisons Rocks are an easy walk from the village (you must pay to park there)
- there are public footpaths through the woods and fields of the Burrswood estate
Learning about the wildlife around you
You don’t need to be an expert to enjoy wildlife, but if you want to know a little bit more about the wildlife around you, here are some tips:
- come along to one of our wild verge trial plant surveys on the first Saturday of the month
- borrow or buy some wildlife guides – there are often good ones second hand in the Oxfam bookshop in Tunbridge Wells
- download wildlife apps – we love iNaturalist and the Merlin bird app, both free – they help all of us to identify what we’re seeing
Using iNaturalist is easy
Put the iNaturalist app on your phone. Make yourself an account and allow iNaturalist to use your camera and location settings.
Open the app and you will see this screen.
This is Sarah’s iNaturalist – you can see that she’s been observing lots of spring flowers recently.
To make an observation, go to the bottom of the screen and choose the Observe button (it has a camera icon).
You can use the camera within iNaturalist (another camera icon) or photos you’ve already taken and stored on your phone (a photos icon).
Take a photo. Try to get as close as you can. Sarah took a photo of a dandelion in her garden.
On the next screen you can add more photos to your observation. Click the + sign in the box next to your photo. Try to take photos from different angles and include as many features of the plant or animal as you can – flowers from above and from the side, stem, leaves, legs, wings, antennae …
Here’s the really clever bit. Click on What did you see? below your photo. iNaturalist will make a really good attempt to identify what you’ve seen.
Here, iNaturalist is pretty sure Sarah saw a plant in the dandelion family. It suggests the most likely dandelion species she saw – the Common Dandelion. To see more about this species, click on the (i) icon next to the species name.
Choose the species you think you saw and press Save. You’ve made your first observation!
You can see your observations by choosing the Me icon on the Home Screen.
If you made your observation within Groombridge, iNaturalist will automatically add it to the iNaturalist Wild Groombridge project – thank you!
What if you’re not sure what you saw?
Don’t worry! Save your best guess from the suggestions iNaturalist offers. Other people in the iNaturalist community will check it.
We often double check our observations using online guides and books. We’ll add some links to online guides soon. You can often find good guidebooks cheap in charity shops.
Can I use my own camera?
Of course. Just upload your photos to your computer. Log into iNaturalist on your computer and add your photos from your image files.
Saving your data
iNaturalist uses quite a bit of data if you download your observations in the field. We suggest you download them once you have wifi.
Wild Groombridge 