Our latest PoMS email newsletter went out on Friday 5 July, with updates on progress with FIT Counts and links to forthcoming events. You can read this newsletter (and all previous ones), and subscribe so that you don't miss any in future, by going to our newsletter page.

This Bees Needs Week, we've looked at the benefits to promoting FIT Counts for local groups. FIT Counts are a great tool to use when working with volunteers: They are accessible; they start a conversation about pollinators; and they are benefit your mental wellbeing. Check out the full article at CJS Online for more details!

Today a new pollinator monitoring partnership agreement has been announced, between the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) and UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH). The details can be seen on the JNCC website

Thank you very much to everyone who completed the questionnaire in February and March 2022, carried out by Birdsong with funding from JNCC, and told us more about your experience with the UK PoMS citizen science project. We are delighted to have received 424 responses, and we are now able to share the results with you.

Following a successful pilot project in 2021, this year Northern Ireland has implemented both PoMS, surveys, enabling us to achieve full UK coverage. During National Insect Week in June 2022, volunteers for the 20 new 1 km squares gathered together to learn more about how to carry out the surveys. In this blog, Pauline Campbell (DAERA) gives her account of the day.

As we move through summer, thistles can be among the most abundant flowers in some areas. That could be from thick beds of Creeping Thistle in wasteland or field margins, or Spear Thistle with its attractive deep purple flowers. In this blog, Rob Jaques, Garden BirdWatch Supporter Development Officer at the British Trust for Ornithology, discusses their variety and value for insects and birds alike.

With clustered, white flowers and hairy, hollow stems, Hogweed is a familiar sight in many meadows. Through FIT Counts, we are seeing just how important it is for pollinating insects, and therefore for people too.

Holding a buttercup up to your chin has been said to show whether you like butter or not – lighting up your skin if you do. This evolutionary feat is a feature of Buttercup's petals, a trick of the light designed to catch the eye. FIT Counts show that this strategy works just as well for insects as it does for people, with 738 counts completed on Buttercups from 2017 to 2020 - the greatest number of FIT counts for a target flower!