Category: Events & Resources

Last chance to count!

Published on by Manu SaundersLeave a comment

This weekend is your last chance to do a 10-minute count for our autumn Wild Pollinator Count!

The count ends the night of Sunday 19th April. If you haven’t done a count yet, find out how to contribute here. We won’t able to include observations done after this date, but the submission form will remain open until the 27th to give you plenty of time to submit your observations. We will post a results summary in May, once we’ve had a chance to collate all the data.

Hope you enjoyed contributing to our count this season! Our next count will be on again in spring, from 8-15 November 2020.

Leafcutter bee (Megachile sp.) by David Pope
Picture: David Pope

Wild Pollinator Count starts Sunday!

Published on by Manu SaundersLeave a comment

Autumn 2020 Wild Pollinator Count starts this Sunday 12 April and runs until the following Sunday 19 April. Take time out with nature for 10 minutes and get to know the insects in your backyard!

Find out how to contribute here. It just takes 10 minutes: find a flower to watch and record what you see. You can watch any flower you like, even weeds, and you can do as many counts as you want during the count week! Observations must be submitted via our online form.

We’ve got lots of tips to help you identify what you see on our resources page. You can share your pics with us via our iNaturalist page, or on social media with the #ozpollinators hashtag (observations must be submitted via our website to be included in the count data).

Happy counting! We understand some people won’t be able to contribute this time, as staying at home is priority right now. Our next count will be on in November. Stay safe and well and hope you enjoy getting to know the insects in your neighbourhood.

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One week until Autumn Wild Pollinator Count

Published on by Manu SaundersLeave a comment

It’s almost time for our next Wild Pollinator Count! The autumn 2020 count starts next Sunday 12 April and runs until the following Sunday 19 April.

If you’re new to the project, you can find out details on how to contribute here. It just takes 10 minutes: find a flower to watch and record what you see. You can do as many counts as you want, any time during that week, on fine weather days (most insect pollinators don’t like poor weather, especially high winds, heavy rain, or frosts). Observations must be submitted via our online form.

Read more about the project here, and also check out some Frequently Asked Questions and other resources to help you identify what sort of insects you see. You can share your pics with us via our iNaturalist page, or on social media with the #ozpollinators hashtag.

You can join in anywhere in Australia, if you have a backyard, a pot plant, or a balcony garden. You can even watch a dandelion in your footpath if that’s all you can find! We ask you to tell us the name of the plant, but you don’t need to know its scientific name.

We understand that some people won’t be able to join in this time, because your safety is a priority while we are all staying home. Please make sure to follow your state or territory’s COVID19 restrictions and don’t travel to parks or reserves to look for flowers. If you are unable to contribute this time, our next count will be on again in November, so please join us then.

Happy counting! Stay safe and well and hope you enjoy getting to know the insects in your neighbourhood.

Last chance to count for spring 2019

Published on by Manu Saunders4 Comments

Wild Pollinator Count ends this weekend! Counts can be done anywhere in Australia until Sunday night, 17 November.

We will leave the submission form open until next weekend to allow everyone time to get their counts uploaded.

Hope you enjoyed counting, wherever you were this spring. Many parts of Australia are experiencing unprecedented weather and fire conditions. It will be interesting to see how wildlife, including our wild pollinators, respond to these conditions in coming years.

If you weren’t able to count this spring, our next count will run 12-19 April 2020.

Hoverfly on Mexican Orange Blossom by Kay Muddiman

 

Nearly time for Spring 2019 Wild Pollinator Count

Published on by Manu SaundersLeave a comment

Our spring Wild Pollinator Count starts this Sunday November 10 and runs until the following Sunday 17 November.

Remember, your 10 minute count must be done during the count week, but the submission form will remain open the following week for you to get all your observations submitted. And you can do as many counts as you want during the count week!

We’re currently in the worst drought on record here in the New England region (and much of eastern Australia). The spring flowers in my garden are mostly dandelions. But there are still quite a few wild pollinators around if I look hard, including lots of beeflies, hylaeine bees, caper white butterflies, and some cute colletid bees I found roosting on our dying cherry tree. Fingers crossed for rain soon! Continue reading “Nearly time for Spring 2019 Wild Pollinator Count” →

Reminder: citizen science survey

Published on by Manu SaundersLeave a comment

Dear Wild Pollinator Counters,

A few weeks ago, we invited you to participate in an online survey on the personal experiences of citizen science participants – that means YOUR experiences.

Have you had a chance to complete the survey? If not, you only have a few days left. Take the opportunity and tell us what you think about our project!

If you have already completed the survey, thank you very much! We appreciate your time and feedback.

This is the link to the survey:

http://www.umfragen.uni-kiel.de/index.php/712751?lang=en

Thank you for your time!

Last chance to count

Published on by Manu SaundersLeave a comment

Autumn Wild Pollinator Count ends this weekend – Sunday 21 April is the last day you can do a 10 minute count.

Thank you to everyone who contributed! We hope you enjoyed getting outside and looking for insect pollinators in your backyard or local park.

Don’t forget, the only way to make sure your count is included in our dataset is to submit your observations via our submission form. The form will remain open until April 29 to give you time to get your observations in. We will post a results summary in May.

If you missed out this time, our next count will be in spring: 10-17 November 2019.

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It’s autumn count time!

Published on by Manu Saunders2 Comments

The wait is over…Autumn Wild Pollinator Count starts this weekend. You can do a count anywhere in Australia, any time between 14 to 21 April 2019 (Sunday to Sunday). Please submit your observations via our online submission form.

If you’re new to Wild Pollinator Count, find out how to count here. Also check out our frequently asked questions and don’t forget the identification resources page, including our guide to identify the differences between bees, flies and wasps.

Looking for some inspiration or reminders of what you might see during a count? Be sure to check out some of the photos contributed during our recent counts (spring 2018 and autumn 2018).

If you use iNaturalist, we’ve started a project for Wild Pollinator Count on that platform so feel free to join it and add any photos to the project. Note that you should still submit your observations via our website to be included in the results for this count period.

And don’t forget to tag us on social media with the hashtag #OzPollinators!

WPCApr19_mosaic

 

 

Autumn Wild Pollinator Count: our 10th count anniversary!

Published on by Manu SaundersLeave a comment

It’s almost time to count pollinators again! The autumn 2019 Wild Pollinator Count is on from 14-21 April 2019. The rules haven’t changed – take a 10 minute break any time during the count week to watch some flowers and record what you see. You can submit an observation from anywhere in Australia.

After the hottest summer on record, it’s still pretty hot and dry in many places. This might be good weather for cold-sensitive pollinators, but it also means there may not be much flowering in your part of the country. Remember, we don’t care if the flower you watch is a native species or a weed, as long as you can tell us what it is (common name is fine). If you’re not sure of the plant but still want to submit the observation, you can describe it in the notes, or email a photo so we can try and validate it when we summarise the data.

We can only take observations that happened during the count week (14-21 April). But if you don’t get to a computer that often, we will leave the submission form open after the 21st to give everyone time to submit observations. Results will be posted here on the blog in early May.

This April is also our 10th count! We started off in November 2014, with only 33 observations submitted. And we’ve been overwhelmed with how quickly people have jumped onboard for wild pollinator conservation – our most recent count in November 2018 had over 600 observations. Thank you to everyone who has contributed over the years, whether once or many times!

If you’re new to Wild Pollinator Count, we are an independent non-profit citizen science project run voluntarily. Our main objectives are to raise awareness about native pollinators and insect conservation. Your observations are contributing to long-term data on plant-pollinator interactions around Australia and we really appreciate you taking time to contribute! We hope you enjoy spending time with nature and learning more about the little animals that we overlook every day!

Check out How to Count and the Resources page for more information and identification tips, as well as the Frequently Asked Questions. And don’t forget our official social media hashtag is #OzPollinators!

If you’re curious about how Wild Pollinator Count started, you can read more here.

Apr19WPC_hover

 

 

 

 

 

Last chance to count!

Published on by Manu SaundersLeave a comment

It’s wonderful to see how many people have jumped on board to count pollinators with us this spring. Thank you to everyone who’s already submitted a count. We hope you enjoyed discovering the forgotten pollinators in your backyard!

It’s the last weekend to contribute to the Spring 2018 Wild Pollinator Count. You can do a 10 minute count any time until Sunday evening. We will leave the submission form open until 25 November to give everyone enough time to get online and submit counts, but remember we can’t include any counts done after Sunday 18 November. We’ll post a summary of results on the blog by early December.

If you’re new to Wild Pollinator Count and want to keep up to date, join our e-news list via the link on the right of the page.

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