Results from our featured charity’s recent citizen science project

Big River Watch September 2024: A dive into the data - The Rivers Trust

Earlier this month we held our latest Big River Watch week, a citizen science initiative where we encourage everyone in the UK and Ireland to spend time by their local rivers and share what they observe through our free app. This event saw a fantastic turn out, with 4,800 participants connecting with our rivers and submitting 2,700 surveys. Altogether, across a single week, we spent an incredible total of 50 days watching and monitoring our rivers.

The recent Big River Watch ran from the 6th-12th of September and here is what you reported from the river’s edge:

The start of autumn brought an array of wildlife sightings

Ducks once again take the prize for the river dwellers most commonly spotted by Big River Watchers, seen in over 1,200 times and featuring in 44% of all surveys. Fish were not far behind, appearing in 854 surveys. Less common but exciting sightings included 7 reports of beavers and 65 sightings of the elusive otter. The dazzling blue and orange flash of a kingfisher was recorded in 340 surveys whilst our elegant swans and herons appeared in 651 and 529 surveys respectively. We also had 146 sightings of the charming dipper and 378 reports of the small but mightily important riverflies – a useful indicator of a river’s water quality.