Welcome to the summer round-up from the GiGLer newsletter, where we look back at the events, projects, and stories that have shaped the first half of the year. In this edition, you’ll find highlights from our latest species records, updates on what the GiGL team has been working on, a recap of recent newsletter features, and a look ahead to what’s coming up later this year…
In this winter edition, we bring you our species recording highlights, GiGL news, recent newsletter features, and a look to what’s coming up in the months ahead. The last half of 2025 was a busy one. For the GiGL team, this meant knuckling down to upload vast numbers of records, enhancing our services, and attending events and conferences…
As summer hits its stride, we’re taking a moment to look back on six months of GiGL insights and stories. In this editorial, you’ll find GiGL updates, spotlights on key projects we’ve been working on, and highlights of places to explore and species to spot. We’re also excited to introduce our round-up of recording from the past six-months…
This issue has been particularly unique, with its narratives weaving themes of history, community, and – rather unintentionally – a remarkable number of pond-related articles! I’ll take you through them all, highlighting where you can learn more and how to get involved in specific projects…
The nine articles in this Issue showcased a collection of personal narratives, interesting discoveries, and enlightening guidance. They particularly focused on the incredible diversity, both biological and geological, of London and the efforts of those working to record and preserve it…
Welcome to the 34th Issue of the GiGLer. As with every editorial, this one is bursting with news from the last 6 months, from the launch of the London Day of Nature to the latest in all things planning and policy…
The variety of articles in the GiGLer’s 33rd Issue reflects our vibrant community and all the amazing work being done to understand and protect nature in our capital…
We hope all of our readers have had a fantastic, happy and healthy 2022. After a year of highs and lows, and not just in terms of temperature, I hope you can join us in looking forward to 2023 with a hopeful optimism and appreciation of our wild city that has so many people dedicated to its conservation…
After a busy start to the New Year, GiGL have been forging ahead with our work as London’s Environmental Record Centre. If you’ve been keeping up with our monthly articles you’ll already know we’ve been working away at a huge range of topics in 2022…
It might be an understatement to say that it has been a busy year for us, which you can probably tell if you’ve been keeping up with our monthly GiGLer articles. We’ve had to say some sad farewells but have also welcomed many new GiGLers, with no less than six new arrivals! In this winter edition of the GiGLer editorial I am delighted to introduce all of our amazing new team members, and I’ve also got some fantastic GiGL achievements to share …
Welcome to the winter edition of our newsletter. We have some project updates to share, and a few staff changes to announce, along with two ‘joy of recording’ articles to inspire us to get back to recording…
The last few months have been anything but usual. Whilst COVID-19 has brought about previously unforeseen changes to our daily-lives, GiGL is proud that we’ve been able to maintain as much of a standard service to our stakeholders as possible…
Close your eyes. Clear your mind. Pull on a warm Christmas jumper and take a deep breath: think back to the start of the year and reflect on everything you have done; think back to five years ago and reflect on everything you have achieved; think back to the start of the decade and reflect on everything that has happened. Reaching the end of a year and the end of a decade certainly seems an appropriate time to reflect on the successes, failures and learnings that have shaped who we are today…
It’s been an exciting time at GiGL HQ these last couple of months; a period of change, rebuilding and planning. There were farewells and welcome additions to the GiGL Family, as well as time spent reviewing GiGL’s systems and services to better communicate how we serve Londoners and the biodiversity around them…
The 10th November was an exciting day for GiGL. Drawing on the success of similar events by our neighbouring Local Environmental Records Centres, we held a London Recorders’ Day for the very first time. This was an event specifically for London’s recording community, bringing together people engaged in recording all genera of wildlife and sharing recording projects across the city….
It’s been a long, hot and busy summer. Whilst the weather will have provided many opportunities for our city’s recorders to be out and about in our wonderful open spaces, the impacts of the extended dry spell on London’s wildlife inhabitants, and the records we receive this year, has yet to be fully understood…
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.
Have you ever wondered what the GiGL team actually do day-to-day? In this issue of the GiGLer, we take you into the inner workings of GiGL, the everyday and the experimental, the daily tasks and the ever-present questions.
While Maria, one of GiGL’s Records Officers, may spend her morning completing data search reports for customers and partners, Data Officers Chloë and Julie, and Operations Manager, Matt, will most likely be …
“Spring is the time of plans and projects.”
Tolstoy’s words were never truer than at GiGL over the last few months. As flowers and trees have finally bloomed in our late spring, so too have the projects we have worked on feverishly over the winter months. Many of our systems have been reworked and given a good spring clean
Welcome to the winter edition of the GiGLer, where we review our ‘Olympic summer’ and give a general recap of the year.
For many of our partners, 2012 has been an exceptionally busy year with both the Diamond Jubilee and Olympics being enjoyed in the capital. To celebrate the work of our partners in ‘London 2012’ we have an article from the London Wildlife Trust who have been involved in environmental education and habitat management in the lead up to the Games.
A new online mapping interface that allows Londoners to find London’s parks open spaces and wildlife sites has emerged out of the demise of similar services, the rise of the All London Green Grid and increasing demand for web-based access to GiGL’s key datasets.
Publicly available planning figures show 17,000 planning applications were assessed in London between January and March last year (2011). In the same period, GiGL delivered just 144 data searches. While not all applications have a potential impact on London’s biodiversity and open spaces, this gap in numbers is very worrying and means less than 1% of planning applications in London are being informed by the GiGL partnership’s data.
In this our 10th edition of the GiGLer, we take a quick look at how things have changed over the five years of the GiGLer’s existence.
In the early summer of 2006, we had just launched as an open space and biodiversity records centre after our two-year development phase and had four staff. Five years on and we’re a fully fledged environmental records centre with seven members of staff: a director, Project and Data Development Manager, …
Welcome to the 9th edition of the GiGLer and the first version of our new ‘iGiGLer’.
In this issue, we have moved away from PDF files, a sophisticated way of delivering information back in 2006, to this new web-based format. The new iGiGLer will enable us to better communicate what we do. It houses all archive articles, providing a valuable resource of information on our services, partners and data holdings.
I’d like to introduce myself as the new chair of the GIGL Steering Group. I have been involved with GIGL from the outset, representing the London Boroughs Biodiversity Forum (LBBF) on the Steering Group, as well as contributing my own professional viewpoint as the...
The GiGL partnership is greater than the sum of its parts. Mandy Rudd, GiGL Director, explains why the partnership model is so valuable to all involved.
The ‘collect once, use many times’ ethos is at the heart of GiGL’s work. The relationship between GiGL and GiGL’s partners isn’t simply that of contractor and contractee. GiGL is run as a business, albeit not-for-profit, with the full cost of collating, managing and making data available being shared amongst our partners and …
Previous editions of the GiGLer have focused on the work of our partners and the systems we have developed to ensure the data we hold are as reliable and accurate as possible. This time, we show you some of the ways that data can provide a bespoke evidence base to inform your work; whether you engage people in accessible local open spaces, or identify the appropriate location for habitat recreation.
We have welcomed the arrival of some significant datasets over the last few months. …
Mandy Rudd, GiGL Director, introduces us to the myriad opportunities afforded by the development of GiGL’s open space data holdings – its collection and use.
Managing open space data is a relatively new venture for GiGL, and one which presents a whole new set of challenges and opportunities. Developing our open space related data and services is one of our key objectives for this financial year.
‘But there isn’t any wildlife in London.’ I heard that all too familiar phrase again on Saturday – this time from the partner of a friend. ‘Yes there is’ – I launch into my usual explanation – UK hotspots, protected species, London’s wild open spaces – but he isn’t...
Welcome to the second edition of the GiGLer. This time we focus on protected species and on some of the organisations that generate and need access to protected species data in London. Since July last year, we have seen a significant growth in our data holdings, with...