Pollinating London Together is grateful for funding from the Community Infrastructure Levy Neighbourhood Fund which has allowed us to extend our surveys of pollinator friendly planting to surveying pollinators themselves. We have a good working relationship with Reading University and now have two ecologists working with us assessing what pollinators are found across the City. They both have very good identification skills and are both just finishing their PhDs.

Because different pollinators are more active at different points of the year, the timing of the assessments needs to reflect this. The first five day survey took place in June, was revisited in July, with another five day survey planned in September. The surveys will cover around 25 sites. Once we have that baseline we will map the occurrences and see where there may be priority areas.

The good weather in July has meant lots of insects are out and about. An interesting find in July was that two Anthidium manicatum — cavity nesting bees — were recorded in full sun at Greyfriars, and others at three other sites. This is a species that used to be quite rare but it seems that the population has increased recently.
After the September surveys we will draft a report on the full findings and use that information to help prioritise surveys for next season.