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Some
simple guidelines to help you carry out your Harebell Survey
When
should you survey?
Survey any time from June to October when the plants are most likely to be flowering in your area.
Where can you find Harebells and Bellflowers?
Harebells are found in a variety of habitats from woodlands to grasslands, but also riversides, cliffs,
heaths and dunes.
You may want to draw a rough sketch map of
the site and location of the Harebells for your own record – this would allow someone to re-visit the
site in future years and see how the populations are faring.
PLEASE NOTE! If you see Bellflowers in a farmer’s field or private woodland,please ask
for permission first before entering the land.Try asking at a local farmhouse or village
shop to find the owner and explain what you would like to do and why. If permission is
refused, accept this politely and do not enter.
How do you
record a grid reference?
On the survey form we ask you to give the grid reference of
the location you have surveyed. It is extremely important that
you provide this information as without it we cannot use your
records! eg. TQ793740
If you have access to the web you can retrieve the grid reference
for your location by visiting the Ordnance Survey website (www.ordsvy.gov.uk)
and following the “Get-a-Map” link at the bottom-right
of the home page. You can either search for a location with
a place name or postcode, or zoom repeatedly into the main map
until you get down to your site.
By placing the cross-hair cursor over your site you can read
off its six-figure grid reference in the bottom-left corner
of the window. Alternatively you can phone the Plantlife helpline
01722 342756 or e-mail harebell@plantlife.org.uk
for further guidance.
How should you record
the harebells and bellflowers you find?
Use the illustrations and descriptions provided here to decide
which type of bellflower is growing at your site.
- Record at any sites where the plants grow.
- If you record more than one bellflower species at a site please
complete a separate record on the survey form for each species.
- The abundance of the Bellflowers within the area they occur.
They may be widely spaced but sometimes
forming distinct patches within
the area
(Fig 1.1.a). Alternatively, they may be
sparce, with just a few plants
occurring here and
there (Fig 1.1b). Finally, they
may be Few, or single plants (Fig 1.1. c).
Figure 1.1 Describing the density of a Bellflower
population. Here each blue dot represents a flowering stem.
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