Hello everyone welcome to my first blog!!

Well its been a busy day today with our press launch, we had some great coverage. My project has been kept under wraps for the last couple of months in wait for this press release. So here's what I have been up to....

I started at the beginning of January and I have been working very closely with local farmers, land owners and conservation bodies in Dungeness and Romney Marsh to encourage the planting of wild flower borders. Its amazing to think 98% of our wild flower meadows have disappeared over the last 60 years! To date the response has been excellent. Simon Ashworth let me hold a tea and cake event at his home for local interested parties and later in June I will be hosting a farm day event at Larry Cooke's farm. This is open to all farmers on the marsh so they can ask questions about joining agri-environment schemes, how to manage wild flower borders and how to maintain them.

In February I travelled to New Zealand to look for subt. I needed to find out its range and to take samples of all bumblebee species back for disease risk assessment. Subt is found on the South Island and is mainly restricted to Mackenzie country. I tracked the bees movement for 4 weeks and even found a nest which is very rare! This gave me lots of insight into this bees behaviour and the habitat which it likes! I will be travelling back at the end of November (beginning of Spring in New Zealand) to collect queens so we can begin captive rearing, wish me luck!

More recently last Friday I did my first bee walk and talk at RSPB Dungeness which was a great day and here's some photographs of the day. Chris, a warden from rye Harbour, found a beautiful B. humilis which he photographed - a great find! Do come along to my bee walks and talks if you're local, the next one is with the Kent High Wealds Project at 83 Colebrook Road, Tunbridge Wells TN4 9DP on the 15th June 1-4pm, a one hour talk followed by a 2 hour bee walk on the nearby nature reserve!

If you have any questions or queries about the project or want to get involved please do email me...... Nikki