Hello everyone!
 
These are pictures taken from the first ever bumblebee farm day event! It was held on the 19th June at Larry Cooke's MoneyPenny farm. Larry has some fantastic red clover fields! Larry is a mixed farmer and has SSSI on his land. He has done some great work for wildlife!
 
I had over 50 people attend from 13 organisations and 20+ farmers. It was a beautiful day (but bad for those with hayfever!). I had a marque with information and leaflets on creating legume/pollen and nectar habitats for farmers and public bodies. Two tours were offered the first to go round Larry's farm to discuss management and maintainence of hay meadows and flower rich borders. The second was a bumblebee identification tour of the clover rich fields. Brian Banks from Swift ecology was the farm tour guide and Geoff Allen took the bumblebee tour.
 
I had a very positive response and throughly enjoyed the day. I have a new events leaflet, which includes the bumblebee ID course on the 23rd August- do email me to book your place!
 
Till next time Nikki

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Hi all
 
Have a look at these beautiful pictures that Sam Smith took of bumblebees down at Rye harbour! Sam is a warden down at Rye harbour and they have been doing some fantastic stuff down there for helping bumblebees- so if your near go down and have a look!

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Hello everyone!
 
I did a bee walk and talk for the High Wealds project on Monday and we had a great turn out! Unfortunately the weather was against us and poured down with rain the whole walk. Nevertheless people stuck with it and the NNR was absolutely fantastic for the bees- whatever the weather. I was lucky enough to be joined by Dr Ian Beavis from Tunbridge Wells museum who helped out identifying all insects and Robert Jones from RSPB who identified all bird calls!
 
I have more bee walk and talk events coming this summer, the next one near Underriver with Kent Wildlife Trust on the 10th July, then Rye harbour on the 19th and the RSPB wildlife fate on the 8-9th August. I will be updating my event leaflet as I have also arranged a bumblebee identification course for the 23rd August- if you want to book your place send me an email!
 
Speak soon Nikki

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Hi everyone
 
I hope you have all been enjoying the beautiful weather! Here's some pic's sent to me by Robert Brown of the Seaford Head committee. Robert contacted BBCT to ask advice for creating suitable habitat for bumblebees on the Seaford Head reserve. Its a great spot and has huge potential for creating bumblebee habitat. I popped down there last month and had a look round and fingers crossed lots of great work can be achieved.
 
Julie Fisher also sent in this great shot of a Bombus lucorum on erysimum. She told me the bees are flocking to it- so why not try planting some in your garden. Julie also said she's popping out to the garden centre to buy some bumblebee plants as she loves having them in her garden!
 
Have you been bumblebee spotting in your garden or whilst walking? Send me your pic's and I'll put them on my blog!!
 
This week I have been visiting farmers around Romney Marsh and talking about recreating suitable wild flower meadows for our bumblebees- the response has been terrific, the farmers have been fantastic and I'm really excited about working with them in the future! Next week I'm off to Sandhurst to speak at a conservation forum run by the MOD, they are the biggest land owner in the UK and have some of the best wildlife habitats so are vey influential. I'm also preparing for my farm day event which is on the 19th June and all farmers on Romney Marsh are invited- if you have land which you think maybe suitable for bumblebees why not come along (send me an email!).
 
I will put up a few pic's on subt from my New Zealand trip soon, so keep posted........ Nikki

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Kent and East Sussex events

If you are local to Kent or East Sussex I am running a few events this year!! Everyone is welcome and all events are free to attend – Learn more!

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

Lots of great publicity today!

Today sees the project unveiled to the World's media! Lots happening today with TV and radio - it's going to be a busy day! Hopefully this will encourage many more people to get involved in helping bees, and perhaps people in the Dungeness area will get in touch offering help. Fingers crossed.....