Would you like to know how to tell a solitary bee from a honeybee? Or a hoverfly from a fly? Learn about the amazing diversity of pollinating insects in this online webinar with Shropshire-based entomologist Nigel Jones, then take your new-found knowledge out for a spin on one of our follow-up guided fieldwork sessions.
Nigel Jones, local entomologist, will discuss what makes an insect a pollinator and talk you through how to identify some of the most common bees and hoverflies that you might see buzzing around your local area. He will walk you through what bees need to nest and pollinator life cycles, so you know where and when to expect to see pollinators out and about.
We’ll also break down how to take part in the PoMS (the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme) FIT Survey (Flower-Insect Timed Count) so you can do some identifying in your back garden, local park, countryside or nature reserve. We’ll show you how to log your results on the online UK database to help monitor your local pollinator populations.
Severn B-lines is an ambitious project that is working to restore wildflower-rich habitats in Shropshire and ‘build’ a pollinator highway. These workshops will enable you to help by providing training in pollinator monitoring, and how you can cater for pollinators in your garden or on your farm. There will be two follow-up fieldwork outings, one aimed at anyone who is interested in learning more about pollinators and how to contribute to monitoring them. The other is aimed at landowners and how they can monitor and provide habitat for pollinators on their land.
