Picture a perfect winter’s day. What does it look like to you? It’s a common misconception that winters are only suitable for hibernating indoors and that much of London’s flora and fauna are hiding away from the cold too. This isn’t the case. London is blessed with many winter visitors who migrate from colder climes …

For many years, we have talked internally about “GiGL treasure” referring to interesting nuggets of information we come across in our daily work, or the more unusual uses of GiGL-held data. GiGL treasure comes in all shapes and sizes. The stag beetle dataset is one of the longer running …

Whilst not an Aesop’s fable, the tales we tell of these two endearing species in this edition of the GiGLer do teach an important lesson: that there is joy in taking the time to be aware of the wildlife that shares our city, and in telling others what you have seen.

London’s community of biological recorders are pivotal to the GiGL partnership. Volunteer recorders and recording societies are GiGL’s biggest source of new species records. To celebrate some of our city’s wonderful recorders we’re beginning a new regular feature to showcase their work.

This year, Greenspace Information for Greater London CIC celebrates both a 10th and a 20th anniversary. London’s Biological Recording Project, which formed the roots of the current day GiGL, was initiated in May 1996 when Bridge House Estates (via the City Bridge Trust) provided three years’ worth of grant funding to build a partnership and run pilot projects. Since then, GiGL has vastly expanded …

It’s often said that a picture is worth a thousand words. This is as true when interpreting environmental data as at any other time. Biodiversity data can sometimes be daunting and inaccessible in its raw format, but thoughtful presentation can make it a highly useful resource for a wide variety of audiences.

GiGL, our partnership and our databases, would be nothing without the contribution of London’s recording community. Every additional record has the potential to positively impact conservation efforts in our city. Supporting London’s recorders is key to our status as a Community Interest Company (CIC).

Local records centres provide a vitally important regional resource of ecological evidence, but working for a records centre isn’t just about collating and managing records. We get involved in a wide range of London projects where we represent the GiGL partnership and its data, and provide a suite of interpreted data products. GiGL have been involved in some fantastic projects this year.

When explaining GiGL’s remit to Joe Public, a common tease is; “Do you just count pigeons and foxes? There’s not much more wildlife than that in London is there?” Oh how wrong these jokers are about their city’s astonishing array of wildlife.

From the rare to the wonderfully common place, the designated sites to your local park, London has a wealth of biodiversity ready to be explored and recorded.