Help us to count the UK’s bumblebees
Bumblebees are in crisis. We are leading the fight to secure their future.
If we can understand the reasons why they are declining, we can work towards stopping and reversing this. Some of the key questions we need to answer to help us understand are: Where are the remaining bumblebees? How many are there? And what are they doing?
You can help!
There are currently three different ways that you can help us gather data and track the UK’s bumblebees:
Credit: Photo: Great Yellow bumblebee (Bombus distinguendus) by Pieter Haringsma
BeeWalk
This is the national recording scheme which monitors the abundance of bumblebees across Britain (Ireland and Northern Ireland run an equivalent scheme). The scheme relies on over 800 volunteers, just like you, who identify and count the bumblebees that they see on a fixed walking route of around 1 to 2km. Each BeeWalk route is walked at least once a month from March to October.
Anyone with basic bumblebee identification knowledge, or the desire to gain these skills through our training sessions or resources, can become a BeeWalker. After you have decided where your route will be and registered it with us, each monthly walk only takes about an hour or two followed by another 20 minutes or less to submit your sightings to the BeeWalk website.
UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (PoMS)
This monitoring scheme focuses on a range of flower-visiting insects and can measure trends in wider pollinator populations across the UK. Data from BeeWalk is feeding into this scheme, but anyone can contribute directly to the scheme, either by carrying out short Flower-Insect Timed Counts (watch a patch of flowers for 10 minutes and see what turns up) or by monitoring a 1km square.
iRecord
To record bumblebees and other wildlife on a more casual basis, go to the iRecord website. If you have one, include a photo of the bumblebee that you have seen to allow the iRecord experts to verify your sighting.
