Next week there’s a nation-wide Wild Pollinator Count – do you have 10 minutes to watch a flower and report what you see? Sure you do.

The Wild Pollinator Count can be done without any fancy gear, and you don’t need to be an insect expert.

You just need to dedicate 10 minutes to helping document Australia’s wild pollinators by choosing a flowering plant, watching it for 10 minutes, and recording what you see.

I’m sure you know all about the importance of pollinators – without them, much of the food we like eat would never fruit, and the ecosystems we live within would be in serious trouble.

However Australia has a huge number of native pollinators, in the forms of bees, wasps, ants, flies, butterflies etc whose pollination habits are not yet fully understood –

“So far, we know that  Australia has around 2,000 native bee species, all of which are important pollinators.

We also know there are a couple of thousand butterfly, wasp, fly, moth, beetle, thrips and ant species, some of which are documented pollinators.

Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of information on the ecology of many of these insects, what flowers they pollinate, or where they are found.” – Wild Pollinator Count Website.

The Wild Pollinator Count is a project headed by pollinator enthusiasts (and respected native bee experts) Manu Saunders, Karen Retra and Dr Tobias Smith.

The Wild Pollinator Count gives you an opportunity to contribute to wild insect pollinator conservation in Australia. We invite you to count wild pollinators in your local environment and help us build a database on wild pollinator activity.

You can join in by watching any flowering plant for just ten minutes sometime in our count week.

• You don’t need to be an insect expert.
• You don’t need fancy gear.
• You may be surprised by what you see!

Find out how to count pollinators, identify the insects you see and submit your observations through the links at the Wild Pollinator Count website.

So, then. We’re off to our local nature reserve to each pick a flowering bush to observe and record, this weekend.

I’m hoping to see some blue banded bees, and Ashar is hoping to catch sight of a teddybear bee – his ‘favourite in theory’ bee, which he’s yet to sight.

No matter what we see, or don’t see, it’s going to be a fun exercise that will no doubt create all sorts of conversations about our native pollinators, plants and more – and we’ll be helping a nation-wide understanding of our beautiful pollinators too!

Wins all around.

Please spread the word about the Wild Pollinator Count with your family, friends, local school + community! A great way to help our ecosystems and spend a little time in nature next week.

All our articles about native pollinators are here…