The results are sobering but it is a big day for @pomscheme.bsky.social with release of our first Official Stats! Huge thanks to the brilliant team at UKCEH who support the scheme, esp @kitenet.bsky.social @francescamancini.bsky.social @robin-hutchinson.bsky.social and Nadine Mitschunas 🤩🐝

Look out for these Tree bumblebee behaviours this summer 🌳🐝 Have you spotted Tree bumblebees behaving this way before?

These patches of Oxeye Daisy are almost completely self-seeded on my lawn and now perfect height for a standing #FITCount! Had a few nice solitary bees and hoverflies in amongst the pollen beetles (classed as small insects <3mm) in today’s count @pomscheme.bsky.social

Lots of fresh male bumblebees visiting my garden Salvia on today’s @pomscheme.bsky.social FIT Count (moving too fast to photograph!) but also a couple of small solitary bees and a lovely ladybird that I wouldn’t have noticed had I not been doing the count 😊

Just warm enough on this sunny glade at the #EarthTrust for a @pomscheme.bsky.social #FITcount on Hawthorn. 14 insects visited in the 10 minutes, accompanied by a chorus of Whitethroat, Blackcap, Chiffchaff and Cuckoo ❤️

Coming through! These bumblebees are on an important mission 🐝💨 💼 Around now, newly hatched workers are taking over a crucial role previously carried out by their queen: collecting pollen and nectar from flowers. 🐛 This supply of pollen will help feed larvae and support the queen to lay more eggs.

Thanks to Guy Singh-Watson for including FIT Counts in the latest newsletter from Riverford, describing the counts as "a welcome opportunity to slow down and take in the natural world". Read the full article at wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/opinion/news...

Despite the cool temperature today, bees were enjoying the Hawthorn flowers. Hawthorn is one of the FIT Count target flowers - read more at ukpoms.org.uk/hurray-for-h...

Had the opportunity to test the new FIT Count quick guide I helped write for @pomscheme.bsky.social with some brilliant volunteers from @tcvnational.bsky.social and West Dumbartonshire Council. Perfect weather for counting pollinators!

No Mow May 👍 = more flowers for pollinators 🌼🐝 = more opportunities for FIT Counts 😄 ukpoms.org.uk/fit-counts

New citizen science initiative launched 🎉 Anyone in the UK can join in by registering their garden and recording the wildlife they see using established apps (FIT Count, iRecord Butterflies or iRecord) More info: ngs.org.uk/the-big-brit... Register today: esurveyor.ceh.ac.uk/national-gar...

NEW: a "Quick Guide" to FIT Counts (pdf) is now available from the PoMS website, providing a summary of how to do the counts and how to recognise the insect groups. This is a welcome addition to our more detailed guides, which are of course still available as well! ukpoms.org.uk/news/quick-g...

Great to catch up with so many of our brilliant volunteers at last night's 1 km square survey webinar - almost 2,000 days of survey visits since we started! A few squares still available to adopt - if you live near a red square & want to know more please get in touch ukpoms.org.uk/contact

Today’s weather looking very promising for lunchtime #FITcounts at @pomscheme.bsky.social HQ, having been just below thresholds so far this week 🤞☀️🐝

As PoMS approaches its tenth year of monitoring #pollinators it is awesome to see what has been achieved by @ukbms.bsky.social, its partners and many, many volunteers over the last 50 years, and also sobering to see how many species have declined in that time

14 degrees, clear blue sky, glorious Dandelions on the lawn = perfect conditions for my first #FITcount of 2026 😊 @pomscheme.bsky.social

Welcome to the new season for #pollinator FIT Counts! Our latest e-news was sent out this morning - read it here mailchi.mp/7e658beeba40... and subscribe at ukpoms.org.uk/subscribe As soon as the weather is warm enough we hope that you will enjoy watching and counting insects on flowers with us.

As well as the FIT Count survey, we run a more systematic survey using insect traps in a set of 1 km squares across the UK. If you live near one of the red squares on the map and are interested in taking part please contact us for more details ukpoms.org.uk/one-km-squar...

There's less than a month until the start of the 2026 FIT Count season on 1 April! The Flower-Insect Timed Count survey asks you to spend 10 minutes counting all insects that land on a patch of flowers, to help monitor abundance of #pollinators. 🪰🦋🌻🪲🐝 More info at ukpoms.org.uk/fit-counts

A chance to learn more about production of this fabulous new guide to #FliesofBritainandIreland with Steven Falk 👏🪰😊@naturebureau.bsky.social www.nhbs.com/blog/author-...

Happy New Year from the PoMS team! Incase you missed our December newsletter, find it here including: 📊 updates on 2025 surveys 🌼 FIT Count projects (now is the perfect time to sign up for 2026) 🪰🐝🐞 links to a great series of past & upcoming #pollinator themed webinars! mailchi.mp/39d2be14e1f2...

Don’t miss the brilliant John Redhead today at #ORFC2026 talking about future crops and @ukceh.bsky.social rice trials from the #agzeroplus programme. Great to hear conference manager Hester van Hensbergen looking forward to this on R4 #FarmingToday ⬇️

Horizon scanning is a successful, low-cost way to predict high risk invasive non-native species, a UKCEH-led study shows. 31 of 92 species identified in 2013 as a potential threat had reached GB by 2023, with 9 established. Regular horizon scanning can guide action & improve biosecurity. 🧪 1/

Exciting NEW PhD just advertised, using @pomscheme.bsky.social data - full details here! ⬇️🐝🪰🐞

The Springline Project - a unique collaboration between ecologists, artists and local communities to create this stunning 10-metre mural that we revealed to a packed audience in Cholsey on Friday! Thank you to everyone who made this happen #MendtheGap @annadillon.bsky.social @ukceh.bsky.social

What an amazing legacy from the Cholsey Springline project! Glad to have been there for the unveiling and to talk to people about Berkshire #moths from the project's events. Huge congratulations to @clairecarvell.bsky.social @annadillon.bsky.social + Becky, Vicky & everyone else who made it happen

Our analysis identifies risks at country scale, for finer spatial analysis (e.g. to infer local #biodiversity impacts) more resolved crops and pesticides usage data are needed. Check out the Land Cover plus: Fertilisers and Pesticides map www.ceh.ac.uk/data/ukceh-l... for a fine resolution example.

Mapping spatial and temporal patterns of pesticide risk to #pollinators and other #inverts across England - I’ve enjoyed working on this important new resource for research into past changes and future risks from @francescamancini.bsky.social and @ukceh.bsky.social 👏 🐝👇

Great opportunity to present @pomscheme.bsky.social collaborative research with @sangerinstitute.bsky.social at #BGEconnects. DNA-based transformation will only be possible with continued national-scale sampling, curated archives, data infrastructure and collaboration with taxonomists.

NEWS:🌾 First rice trials in the UK! UKCEH scientists are growing cold-hardy rice on rewetted peat in the Cambridgeshire Fens. Nine varieties, four mini paddies and a big question: can rice thrive in UK conditions? buff.ly/wYnH1DE 🧪 🧵 1/

The sun is shining in South Oxfordshire, perfect weather for FIT Counts on the Ivy covering our hedgerows! Female Ivy bees busy collecting pollen, not many other insects today. FIT in 😉your last counts before the @pomscheme.bsky.social survey ends on 30 Sept 🐝

We're leading a review of long-term UK terrestrial & freshwater monitoring for NERC. This will help identify priorities for an adaptable & flexible UK environmental monitoring network for the future Take part via our survey before 9am Mon 29 Sep: app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/ceh-online... 🧵🧪1/

Wonderful to see the sustained effort in FIT Counts coming into @pomscheme.bsky.social for 2025! Running the survey throughout the season will allow us to look at insect responses to shifts in weather patterns and flowering times, as the dataset builds. Please keep the counts coming in 👏🐝🪰🐞

Target flowers for FIT Counts at the moment include heathers, Ivy, Buddleia & thistles, but if you don't have any of those nearby it's fine to use other flowers - see the FIT Count guides at ukpoms.org.uk/fit-counts and give it a try over the bank holiday 👍

The latest PoMS e-news went out yesterday, with updates on FIT Counts in 2025; news of a new UK butterfly; research on plants for pollinators; PoMS local projects; & some great forthcoming events. If you missed it you can read it at mailchi.mp/e73193cb8054... & subscribe at ukpoms.org.uk/subscribe

The latest UK Hydrological Outlook forecasts river flows and groundwater levels for August to October. Though recent rainfall helped ease drought pressures in some parts of the country, river flows elsewhere remain unusually low. 📽️ Hear from UKCEH hydrologist @wilsonchan.bsky.social 🧪 1/

The theme for yesterday's #WildFlowerHour was #PollinatorPals - check the tag for some great examples of pollinators in action, from @wildflowerhour.bsky.social, and if you've enjoyed watching pollinators have a go at counting them with a PoMS FIT Count ukpoms.org.uk/fit-counts

NEW: Your PoMS Insights - if you sent in a FIT Count in 2024-25 you may have had an email from us with feedback on how your results compare to the overall totals, and to thank you for your participation - and hopefully encourage you to keep adding new counts! More info: ukpoms.org.uk/news/insights

Scientists from the Royal Horticultural Society have reviewed and updated the RHS "Plants for Pollinators" list, and volunteers at RHS gardens are using PoMS FIT Counts to gather further data on insects visiting flowers www.rhs.org.uk/science/arti...

Lovely lunchtime #FITcount on knapweed outside the office at @ukceh.bsky.social Wallingford. Good to see a brown argus butterfly land in my quadrat too! The wildflower diversity in our meadow has really held well despite the lack of rain. @pomscheme.bsky.social

A great day at RHS Garden Rosemoor discovering #pollinators with RHS staff and volunteers. The rain held off for two fun #FITcount sessions, Scabious and Fennel buzzing with insects in the Cottage Garden! #BeesNeedsWeek2025

Looking forward to joining colleagues at @rbgkew.bsky.social tomorrow for #BeesNeedsWeek2025 - find out about #bees & other #pollinators + have a go at a Flower-Insect Timed Count to help monitor what's happening #BeesNeedsWeek. See details on the Kew website at www.kew.org/kew-gardens/...

Thanks to everyone who came to see us in the @ukceh.bsky.social stand or #Biodiversity Bimble at #Groundswell. Lots of inspiring chat on insect monitoring within regenerative farming systems, plus a #FITCount on white clover in the showground 🐝😍☀️

Busiest ever #FITcount with 42 insects visiting this gorgeous Euphorbia seguieriana in my garden! Lovely to see so many tiny white-faced Hylaeus bees, ruby-tailed wasps and others, wasn’t sure what to do when a social wasp started preying on the small flies I had just counted @pomscheme.bsky.social

Last week we held a workshop at Oxford Island Nature Reserve on the shores of Lough Neagh with @daera-ni.gov.uk staff, volunteers, placement students and the All-Ireland #Pollinator Plan team discussing all things PoMS! Species rich meadows provided a great opportunity for #FITCounts too #Insectweek

The UK PoMS Annual Report 2024 is out now, celebrating the start of @royentsoc.bsky.social #InsectWeek! Huge thanks to all who have contributed. Read lots more in the thread below 👇 and find the full report here ukpoms.org.uk/reports

Colours in the garden are still so vibrant in this evenings light. Watching hummingbird hawk moths visit the Linaria. Was I the only one to miss this AI feature automatically coming into smartphone photos?!

The sun is shining for #FITcounts this weekend! On Sunday @pomscheme.bsky.social team enjoyed introducing families to the insect life on our community meadow, as part of The Springline Project @chilternsnl.bsky.social #MendtheGap We’d love to hear of other community events where you are 🐝☀️

Have you heard about the Field Recorder Days? Come and join us on one of these free fun days in London this summer! We've got events focusing on Beetles, Flies, Botany and Fungi in Kingston, Southwark and Bexley. 🔗 www.eventbrite.co.uk/cc/field-rec...

🌼🐝 On #WorldBeeDay we were delighted to host US pollinator ecologists & master gardeners to Wallingford to share experiences of citizen science monitoring The visitors run the Great Southeast Pollinator Census across several US states—great exchange with @pomscheme.bsky.social & UKCEH colleagues!