By Daniel Parlour, Scottish Countryside Junior Ranger.
At the end of July 2024, Species on the Edge (SOTE), RSPB Scotland and Dunnet Community Forest (DCF) held a Citizen Science event at Dunnet Head to encourage the general public to get involved in citizen science for nature conservation. As part of my Scottish Countryside Junior Ranger Leadership award, I worked with all the DCF youth volunteers to organise and lead BeeWalks and FIT Counts for this event.
What are BeeWalks?
BeeWalks are a survey where you walk along a set route (called a transect), usually no longer than a mile, looking for bumblebees. When you find one you identify its species, its caste (Queen/Male/Worker) and make a note of what it’s up to at the time. The BeeWalks help to establish an idea of how our bumblebee populations are doing and all of the information gathered is sent to Bumblebee Conservation Trust. Anyone can become a BeeWalker – all you need is some basic identification knowledge and a spare few hours or so every month to walk a fixed route of about a mile (you choose where it goes), and submit your sightings. There is more information here.
Once a member of public had been on a BeeWalk, we tested their bee knowledge with a quiz offering them the chance to win a pin badge, which was enjoyed by all. We also took two RSPB volunteers on a BeeWalk. It was a very interesting walk as we shared our knowledge of bumblebees and they shared their knowledge of birds.
What are FIT Counts?
FIT Counts (Flower-Insect Timed Counts) are part of the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme and there is a video about them here. To do a FIT count you choose a target flower species, within a 50cm by 50cm box (usually made out of string and tent pegs), such as dandelions, buttercups, heather or clover to name a few. Then, for 10 minutes, you keep an eye out and record any insects, such as bumblebees, butterflies, moths, wasps and hoverflies, which might land on, be resting on, feeding on or flying over your target flowers.
A FIT count can be carried out at any time from the 1st of April to the 30th of September, and the ideal temperature for a FIT count is around 13-15 degrees Celsius. Any data you collect, you can fill in on a recording sheet from the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme and send in to them.
The Citizen Science Day got even better when the ice cream van turned up, and Garance (DCF’s forest development officer and our volunteer leader) bought us all ice creams! Towards the end of the day the traditional arrival of the midges began, so out came the midge nets and bug spray, but they didn’t beat us! Many people seemed very interested and engaged and everyone had a great time – we got some lovely feedback, and all in all it was a successful day.
Here is some of the feedback we received:
