We need your ears and eyes to record the sounds and sights of nature along UK roads.
Insects are vital for many habitats, but they may struggle to communicate in noisy environments.
Join hundreds of participants across the UK as we collect audio recordings and insect observations to better understand how road noise affects insects.
This activity is part of our Nature Overheard programme.
At a glance
Record audio and observe insects by the side of roads
Type of activity: Outdoors
Who can take part? Everyone
When? Spring through to Autumn
Best time of day: between 10am - 4pm
Where? Roadsides anywhere in the UK
How long will it take? 20-25 minutes
How to take part
- Download and print the Survey Booklet (PDF 3.1MB).
- Pick a street or road to survey and find a safe area within 10 metres of it.
- Record audio for five minutes within your survey area - capturing both the sounds of nature and human generated noise.
- Walk through your survey area and record any insects you find.
- Copy your survey booklet results, any images and recorded audio into our online form.
For repeated or group surveys
If you are running a group survey, download our Group Leader Guide (PDF 6.7MB). Why not make it a shared activity? Participate with friends, family, or neighbours and amplify the impact of your efforts.
If you repeating the survey without needing futher instructions, download the Simplified survey booklet (PDF 1.4MB). We’d love for you to take part as often as possible, either at the same road or you can choose a few different one. A good target to aim for is once a month or three times across spring, summer, and autumn.
All resources to help you take part
- Survey Booklet (PDF 3.1MB)
- Group Leader Guide (PDF 6.7MB)
- Simplified survey booklet (PDF 1.4MB).
- Insect photography: top tips (PDF 100KB)
- Risk assessment template (DOCX 665KB)
- How we use your data in this project - Community Science Privacy Notice (PDF 114KB)
- Survey booklet - Welsh (PDF 2.3MB)
- Group leader guide - Welsh (PDF 3.3MB)
Post-survey questionnaire
If you've taken part in the survey, please give us your feedback by completing a short questionnaire.
How sound technology can reveal the impact of noise pollution on insects
Animals communicate with each other, often through making sounds. This means that in noisy environments, animals can be forced to change how they communicate so that they can be heard. Although insects play a critical role in sustaining a healthy environment, these effects have been too challenging to study at scale until now.
Museum scientist Ed Baker has been developing the technology to disentangle background noise from sound recordings to detect insects and other wildlife. He’s excited about what this project can achieve.
Although decoding audio recordings is difficult, the more we have the easier it becomes.
Ed Baker
Museum scientist
By learning more about how insects are impacted by noise pollution, we can support road developers, councils, and others to make our roads better for nature.
Repeated surveys will be extremely valuable to help us gather as much information as possible, but if you can only do the survey once then this will still help us answer our questions.
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Funding
Nature Overheard is part of the Urban Nature Project. We thank all those who have generously contributed, including: