UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme

Our latest Annual Report is out, covering the year 2025 🎉 It includes our latest results & the trend analysis being developed as Official Statistics, plus updates from PoMS partners & volunteers, species highlights, FIT Counts for the National Education Nature Park, & more ukpoms.org.uk/reports

PoMS FIT Counts reveal Common Ivy as the most popular flower for pollinating insects! Read more in today’s news story from our partners at @savebutterflies.bsky.social ⬇️

🎉Congratulations to everyone involved in this new PoMS paper! PoMS provides the evidence needed to understand how pollinators in the UK are doing and focus conservation work where it's most needed.🐝🦋

PoMS reaches another key milestone with publication of our modelling paper and blog on the eve of the last day of our 10th survey season!! 👏🎉 Thanks as ever to all the volunteers, partners and funders who have made this possible 🙏 🌟 More details below!

Fading Asters are still a magnet for Drone Flies. Eristalis arbustorum. #Diptera #VC55 #flies

Leave the leaves! 🍂 🍁 Leaves are habitat that support pollinators and other invertebrates and provide them with the shelter they need to survive the winter... xerces.org/blog/leave-t...

Roadside pollinator populations and the negative impact of intensive roadside vegetation maintenance... resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Last few days left for your FIT Counts! 😃 If you can find flowers and good weather you can still contribute a #pollinator count - but hurry 👩‍🦽🏃🚴‍♀️ the season ends on Weds 30 September ⏳️

2026 gave us more butterflies on Dutch Butterfly Monitoring transects than 2023 and 2024 (these years were the worst since 1990), and a little bit more than 2025, especially in August. But beware of shifting baseline, numbers in most years in the 1990s were often twice as high as nowadays.

How to create a garden for the future, with Nadine Mitschunas podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/h...

Definitely feels like wasps that managed to survive the heatwave are now popping up on the Ivy! Got a spare 10 mins? Do a #FITcount for @pomscheme.bsky.social!

PoMS partner @btobirds.bsky.social is seeking volunteers for winter bird surveys at coastal sites - an opportunity to fill the gap before next year's pollinator season 😀

A great collage of insects visiting Ivy flowers, from last Sunday's #WildflowerHour 👍 #Pollinator FIT Counts on Ivy (& other flowers) can be done until end of September, & with some dry weather forecast this week there's still time to enjoy watching & counting autumn insects ukpoms.org.uk/fit-counts

Ten days left to do a #FITcount in the 2026 @pomscheme.bsky.social survey season! Been watching lots of Ivy bees on the Ivy flowers on our garden fence. Not as many wasps as I remember from previous years. What’s visiting your Ivy? @waspwoman.bsky.social

Fake figs, fooled fig wasps & rewarded flies: this plant has one of the strangest #pollination systems yet found in #Apocynaceae. I’ve written about the new study and how it fits into our wider work on this extraordinary plant family. Read more here: jeffollerton.co.uk/2026/09/18/f... #Biodiversity

🌾 AgZero+ datasets are now available as layers in the new Spatial Explorer. Explore hedgerows, fertilisers, pesticides, soils and recreation demands, using sensors, satellites, surveys and study farms to reveal insights into agricultural landscapes and land use. catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/documents/47...

This year's #BigButterflyCount results show it was a very good summer for many of our widespread butterfly species. But how will the extreme heat and drought impact next year's populations? ☀️🦋 Dr Dan Hoare, Director of Nature Recovery, breaks down the results.

Congratulations on a fantastic award for PoMS team member Nadine! Her garden looks superb and is a paradise for #pollinators - do watch the video to find out more #WildlifeGardening

The results from this years’ #BigButterflyCount @savebutterflies.bsky.social are out! 👏 With interesting reflections from @richardfoxbc.bsky.social “a good summer for adult butterflies is not the same as a good summer for butterfly populations”

Ivy flowers can attract a wide range of insect visitors, and are one of the target species for our #pollinator FIT Count surveys - plenty of opportunity to carry out a ten-minute count before the end of September! ukpoms.org.uk/fit-counts and see the PDF quick guide at ukpoms.org.uk/sites/defaul...

Do you participate in nature-related citizen science – or would you like to?📱Take part in our survey: https://ow.ly/bIee50ZHB6o 🔗 More information: https://ow.ly/EqKX50ZHB6s #CitizenScience #ForestResearch

It's certainly going to be interesting to see what effect these unprecedented conditions have had on the wildlife data collected by PoMS and other long-term monitoring schemes

The latest UK butterfly indicators have recently been published. Data from volunteers who take part in the Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey on their BBS squares is included in this, so if you are one of them, thank you very much for your time and effort! @btobirds.bsky.social @ukbms.bsky.social

It is almost peak Devil's bit Scabious in Lye Valley #fen, the purple haze just does not come out in the photo. The purple bobble flowers are where all the insects are -spot the painted lady I never even noticed in first photo. @friendlyevalley.bsky.social Well worth a visit to see this display.

Discover Clerkenwell’s Pollinator Path! Join us on 22 September at 3pm for an afternoon exploring the links between plants, pollinators and people. We’ll visit two gardens, including St John’s ancient physic garden, and take a guided tour of the Museum of the Order of St John.

Just published: UK and England butterfly population indicators using UKBMS data. These show a long-term decline in the all-species index in the UK of 18% and a 37% decline for habitat specialists in the UK. Check out the full statistics here ⬇️ www.gov.uk/government/s...

Join these cuckoo bumblebees for a thistle picnic🧺 🐦Six of the UK’s 24 bumblebee species are cuckoo bumblebees. Instead of building nests, females take over those of other bumblebees and rely on them to raise their young. ⚠️Important pollinators, they are not a major threat to bumblebee populations.

Look forward to seeing this!

It's been a bumper year for Humming-bird Hawk-moths, with over 8,000 sightings across the UK reported via iRecord so far. If you've not yet seen one yourself keep watching flowers (and doing FIT Counts!) and look out for their amazing hovering behaviour.

Many thanks to Andrew and all our other volunteers for keeping our long-term monitoring surveys going during a difficult field season 🙏 Will be fascinating to see what the data shows. Hope you enjoyed the well-earned refreshments!

Well done to @whitmuir1.bsky.social and all the @pomscheme.bsky.social volunteers who are keeping up with their 1km surveys this summer. Please do take care in the extreme temperatures ☀️ Good to see some woodland habitat providing refuge for the insects and surveyors here 🍃

Lovely to see #FITcounts and other insect recording methods in action at the @cedarrecordsni.bsky.social Teen Nature Recorders Workshop. Still time to get familiar with the ukpoms.org.uk/index.php/fi... before the summer is out!

Setting up a @pomscheme.bsky.social 1km square survey. Nearly always more difficult to find the perfect weather day for pollinator surveys in northern Scotland! At least the heather is blooming for the #FITCounts

New BeeWalk data shows that extreme temperatures can cause bumblebee colonies to decline and populations to shrink the following spring. With more intense heatwaves on the horizon, some of our most cherished species could be pushed to the brink. Read more: https://ow.ly/JMNs50ZqHir

It was buzzing at the #BeesNeedsWeek Science Festival at RHS Wisley. Visitors discovered how easy it is to support pollinator science by spending 10 minutes counting pollinating insects on flowers 🐝🌼 Take time in nature with your own FIT Count for @pomscheme.bsky.social ukpoms.org.uk/fit-counts

A fantastic 3000+ dedicated volunteers contributed data to the first Official Statistic in Development on pollinating insects trends in GB, published recently. A huge thanks to all of them! 🙏 The data were collected for @pomscheme.bsky.social & you too can get involved: ukpoms.org.uk 1/ #BeesNeeds

Looking forward to kick starting #beesneedsweek2026 with @pollinatinglt.bsky.social and the City of London at this evening event discussing data and pollinators! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/data-and-p...

At a time of increased environmental pressure, volunteer-power comes to the rescue! NPMS volunteers are delivering crucial data to help us understand UK plant biodiversity & habitat health. Find out how in the new #NPMS Annual Report: https://ow.ly/SBqE50ZkChX

Read all about it. The latest biodiversity newsletter from @kingstonuniversity.bsky.social all about 🦋 and balsam @kingstonunilib.bsky.social @kingstoneconomics.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social mailchi.mp/e6d5f2a1255a...

Good morning from Groundswell! Getting ready for the Biodiversity Bimble with ADAS, Buglife and @bumblebeetrust.bsky.social. Find us at the Safari Tent 11am or come and talk to the team at the @ukceh.bsky.social stand C36 ☀️

A celebration of fantastic flies from @bbowt.bsky.social ⬇️👏🪰

Visit to my @pomscheme.bsky.social #1kmsquare for June survey. Warm but pleasant. Most insects seem to prefer the shade today. However the female Clegs have no trouble with the weather, wearing shorts maybe not my best choice today. Getting buzzed by big noisy things too. @ukceh.bsky.social

The UKPoMS Stats and Annual Report were released today giving an important insight into how pollinating insects are doing, as well as providing valuable data on which flowers attract butterflies, day-flying moths and other pollinating insects. ukpoms.org.uk/sites/defaul... @pomscheme.bsky.social

Congratulations to PoMS partner @uniofreading.bsky.social for their impressive commitment to sustainability

Have you done a ten-minute FIT Count for #pollinators during #InsectWeek? There's still time! See ukpoms.org.uk/fit-counts (but please take care during hot weather - FIT Counts can be done on flowers in the shade 😎 but if in doubt wait for cooler conditions)

It’s #InsectWeek! Join the @royentsoc.bsky.social at one of their fantastic 5 City Hubs for 2026, featuring hands-on science and insect discovery. Watch this space for more from @pomscheme.bsky.social later in the week!

It’s #InsectWeek! Join the @royentsoc.bsky.social at one of their fantastic 5 City Hubs for 2026, featuring hands-on science and insect discovery. Watch this space for more from @pomscheme.bsky.social later in the week!