Citizen Science

Enhancing green spaces in London where all natural pollinators can thrive, and their habitats can be enjoyed by all.

Recording schemes are an invaluable source of data for the scientists looking at pollinators, their behaviours (which plants are they visiting, when, where in the country?) and assessing the scale of any success stories. Anyone can contribute to these schemes simply by observing and noting what they see and contribute to data collection by using their smartphone.

'FIT'-Counts:

The Flower-Insect Timed Count (FIT Count) is designed to collect new data on numbers of flower-visiting insects, as part of a wider set of surveys under the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (PoMS). This scheme, owned and managed by the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, is made up of a partnership of research organisations and environmental charities, including the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.

PoMS is the only scheme in the world generating systematic data on the abundance of bees, hoverflies and other flower-visiting insects at a national scale (currently across England, Wales and Scotland). Together with long-term occurrence records collated by the Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society and Hoverfly Recording Scheme, these data will form an invaluable resource from which to measure trends in pollinator populations and target our conservation efforts.

The PoMS’s FIT counts are designed to be basic, straightforward surveys for anyone to carry out when they have a few spare minutes.

Click on the buttons below to learn more about how to carry out a FIT count, and to learn more about how you can log your findings on the FIT count app.

This video from the Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (PoMS) provides additional information about the programme works, and how you can get involved.

2021 Update

The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology have ended up with over 3,680 FIT Counts for the year (in the UK), a fantastic achievement and the highest annual total for PoMS to date. The UK PoMS recording season runs from April to September annually.

UKCEH recently produced the following two-minute video ‘pollinator data story’ that features PoMS and some of the research to which your survey results are contributes.