Juanita Browne: Do you have 10 minutes to carry out an easy pollinator survey?

If you’ve been planting pollinator-friendly flowers or reducing pesticide use or grass-cutting, doing regular FIT counts will allow you to measure the impact of those actions

Doing a FIT count is easy and fun. Picture: Peter Cutler

It is well known that the numbers of pollinating insects, such as bees and flies, are declining. We know this through monitoring insect abundance over time, and it’s vitally important to always continue to track changes. 

One way that anyone can help with this vital data collection is by spending just 10 minutes doing a Flower-Insect-Timed Count, or FIT count. Simply by counting the numbers of insects that land on a small patch of flowers, you can help researchers at the National Biodiversity Data Centre to understand changes in the abundance of flower-visiting insects.

Doing a FIT count is simple. You just print off the recording form; mark out a 50x50cm square patch of flowers; set your timer, and record what insects you see visiting your patch in 10 minutes. You don’t have to be an expert: if you can tell a fly from a bumblebee or a beetle from a butterfly, you’re well on your way. 

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You only need to count insects in broad groups – you don’t need to identify them down to species level. The FIT count webpage offers lots of identification guides and a video to help you learn how to carry out your own counts.

The FIT-count survey season begins on April 1 and you can do counts any time from then to the end of September. The most useful counts are those that are repeated over time at the same general location. 

It’s helpful if you can choose to focus on one of the survey’s ‘target flowers’: buttercup, dandelion, hawthorn, bramble, lavender, hogweed, knapweed, ragwort, white clover, red clover, buddleja, heather, thistle, or ivy. But if you can’t find any of these flowers, it’s fine to choose another flower that is attracting insects. You can also focus on different target flowers at different times of year.

If you’ve been taking actions to help pollinators – perhaps by planting pollinator-friendly flowers or reducing pesticide use or grass-cutting – doing regular FIT counts will allow you to measure the impact of those actions, as you will hopefully see the number of visiting insects or their diversity increase. 

This makes FIT counts very useful for individuals, businesses or community groups who want to measure changes in their local biodiversity. Your count location can be anywhere: your garden, local park, farm, business or schoolyard.

Doing a FIT count also offers you the opportunity to slow down and spend a very enjoyable 10 minutes to yourself in the outdoors. It might also be something you can do with family, friends, or schoolmates. It allows you to stop and notice nature. You might be amazed at how much insect diversity you see in 10 minutes, or you might be surprised at how few insects you see. 

Insect numbers change with the season and the weather, but low numbers might also show you that your area is not very pollinator-friendly. If that is the case, the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan offers lots of resources to help you understand how you can make your area more attractive to biodiversity. All of these resources, plant lists, videos, and guides are free to download at www.pollinators.ie. 

Anyone can do a FIT count and help to contribute valuable data through this citizen science scheme. To take part, see www.pollinators.ie/fit-count/. 

• Juanita Browne has written a number of wildlife books, including 'My First Book of Irish Animals' and 'The Great Big Book of Irish Wildlife'. Contact the author at [e-mail]