Wild Pollinator Count

Time to count!

Published on April 10, 2021April 10, 2021 by Manu SaundersLeave a comment

Autumn Wild Pollinator Count starts now – you can join in any time between Sunday 11 and Sunday 18 April.

If you’re new to the count, read this page to find out the standardised method you need to follow to do a count. It’s simple to do and only takes 10 minutes!

Once you’ve done a count, you can submit your observations here. You can do as many individual counts as you want within the count week, but each one should be submitted on a seperate form.

Check out our resources page for identification tips and resources, including an updated version of our Pollinator ID guide (thanks to Victorian Department of Environment Land Water and Planning).

Happy counting!

Citizen science research published

Published on April 7, 2021 by Manu SaundersLeave a comment

Last year, we asked our Wild Pollinator Count network to contribute to some research conducted by colleagues in Germany, looking at why people participate in biodiversisty citizen science programs and what they gain from it.

The research has now been published in the British Ecological Society journal People and Nature. Survey respondents reported positive changes in all the target outcomes, including environmental behaviours and scientific interest and knowledge. The paper is open access, and you can read it here:

Biodiversity citizen science: Outcomes for the participating citizens

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this research – out of more than 60 different projects around the world, Wild Pollinator Count recorded the second highest number of respondents to the survey!

Autumn 2021 count

Published on April 6, 2021April 10, 2021 by Manu SaundersLeave a comment

Wild Pollinator Count time has rolled around again. The autumn 2021 count runs from 11-18 April.

This has been another challenging summer in many parts of Australia, with fires on the west and floods on the east, so you may see a change in your local pollinators. Hope you are all safe.

During the count week, you just need to take 10 minutes to watch a flowering plant and count the numbers of different flower visitors you see. Find out more about How to Count here. Remember, you should only watch a single flowering plant – we cannot accept observations that have observed multiple different plants at once within a garden.

Submit your observations via our easy online form here on the website.

You can connect with us on social media via our hashtag #WildPollinatorCount, or #Ozpollinators.

Happy counting!

Spring 2020 results are here!

Published on December 23, 2020December 23, 2020 by Manu Saunders2 Comments

It took us a little longer than usual to collate results this year, for understandable reasons! It’s been a challenging year, and we hope you’re all keeping safe and well.

The spring count happened 8-15 November 2020. We received just over 1000 submitted observations (1028 usable records, 18 were removed for incomplete data) representing over 12,000 insects! This is a drop from our all-time submissions record in autumn 2020 (in the midst of the first COVID lockdowns!), but still well above last spring’s count. Thank you to all who participated during what has been a difficult year for all of us.

Continue reading →

Spring 2020: Last chance to count

Published on November 14, 2020 by Manu SaundersLeave a comment

There’s still time! Spring Wild Pollinator Count finishes this Sunday 15 November.

The submission form will remain open until next weekend, to give you plenty of time to get your counts submitted. But we won’t be able to include any counts done after Sunday evening.

We will post a results summary here on the blog before the end of the year.

Hope you enjoyed taking 10 minutes with nature!

Time to count!

Published on November 7, 2020 by Manu Saunders1 Comment

Spring 2020 Wild Pollinator Count starts Sunday 8th November. You have until Sunday 15th November to do a count. You can do as many 10 minute counts as you want, any time during the count week, from anywhere in Australia!

Find out How to Count here. Remember, each count must focus on one flowering plant. Find out more about the science behind our method on our FAQ page. You don’t need to take photos to submit a count, but you’re welcome to share them with us if you do – you can do this via email or via our iNaturalist project page.

If you’re new to identifying different types of flower visitors, check out our handy tips and online resources, incluidng our handy guide to some of the most common insect groups you will see (free to download!).

All counts must be submitted via our online form. The form will stay open after the end of the count week, to give you plenty of time to submit.

Hope you enjoy the spring, stay safe and happy counting!

Counting pollinators (and other exciting things) in Pollinator Week

Published on October 28, 2020 by Manu SaundersLeave a comment

Our Spring Wild Pollinator Count coincides with Australian Pollinator Week.

This year, the Pollinator Week team are promoting our count as their featured event – thank you Pollinator Week! If you can’t get enough pollinators, don’t forget to check out their events page for what’s happening near you, or even add your own event.

It’s spring! Almost time to count wild pollinators

Published on October 20, 2020 by Manu SaundersLeave a comment

If you’ve been waiting for a reason to get outside and enjoy spring, Wild Pollinator Count is on again soon!

The Spring 2020 count runs from 8-15 November. Anyone, anywhere in Australia, can contribute to the dataset – it only takes 10 minutes outside on a warm sunny day. Follow the simple instructions to conduct a count and submit your observations via our easy online form. Find out more details on our FAQ page. If you want to know a little more about our history and objectives, see this blog post (note: the post was written in 2016 and some date-specific information is unreliable).

Autumn 2020 count results

Published on June 9, 2020June 9, 2020 by Manu SaundersLeave a comment

Thank you to everyone who participated in our biggest count yet! A total of 1959 valid observations were submitted this count. Our previous record was 736 observations, in spring 2019, so this is a huge increase! The autumn 2020 count coincided with COVID-19 lockdowns around the country, so we hope you enjoyed the opportunity to take some time with nature in your backyard.

We were so overwhelmed with the number of records, it has taken us much longer than usual to summarise the data! The huge number of submissions also caused some technical issues for our website, so we apologise if you received delayed confirmation of your submissions. We are working to fix these potential issues for future counts. For those new to Wild Pollinator Count, we are an unfunded project run by two people (Manu & Karen) and we thank everyone for their patience as we work through the responses. We really appreciate the many contributions and positive feedback we get at every count!

So, what were the results? Continue reading “Autumn 2020 count results” →

Thank you for contributing!

Published on April 20, 2020April 19, 2020 by Manu SaundersLeave a comment

The autumn 2020 Wild Pollinator Count is now over. Thank you to everyone who has contributed this time, we hope you get as much out of watching insects on flowers as we do!

If you shared photos or links seeking help with identification please bear with us. We’re thrilled with the huge response to this round of the count and working hard to reply to those requests.

The submission form will stay open until next weekend (April 26), so you have plenty of time to submit your observations if you haven’t done so yet. We will post a results summary here on the blog in May.

See you at the spring count, 8-15 November 2020!