Spend ten minutes watching flowers and insects in good weather! Help assess changes in abundance of broad groups (e.g. bumblebees, hoverflies) of wild pollinators, from April to September.
This simple survey collects data on the total number of insects that visit a particular flower, ideally chosen from our list of 14 target flowers. FIT Counts can be done anywhere, including gardens and parks, in warm, dry weather any time from April to September. FIT Counts are suitable for all, in urban or rural locations.
Wild pollinators may have declined in the UK by more than 30% since 1980, but we need much more data to be able to track changes in abundance. You can help by doing a FIT Count, maybe even repeating it over the season. You don’t need to identify the insects to species level, only to within broad groups e.g. bumblebees, hoverflies, butterflies & moths, wasps
The FIT Count is part of the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (PoMS), within the UK Pollinator Monitoring and Research Partnership which comprises the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH), Bumblebee Conservation Trust, Butterfly Conservation, British Trust for Ornithology, Hymettus, Reading University, University of Leeds and Natural History Museum. PoMS is jointly funded by Defra, the Welsh and Scottish Governments, Daera, JNCC and project partners.
