Surveying For Pollinators

Pollinators like bees, butterflies, hoverflies and even beetles play a vital role in keeping our ecosystems thriving. They help plants reproduce, support biodiversity, boost food production, and contribute billions to the global economy. Beyond their ecological importance, they’re also excellent indicators of environmental health — when pollinators are doing well, nature usually is too.

But how do we actually find out what’s happening with pollinators?

In this webinar, we’ll explore the fascinating world of pollinator surveys — from simple, hands-on methods anyone can try, to more advanced techniques used by experienced entomologists and ecologists. You’ll get an overview of popular approaches, including:

• Flower-Insect Timed Counts – A quick and accessible method inspired by the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (PoMS).
• Transect Walks – Great for spotting pollinators along a fixed route and comparing habitats.
• Plant-focused sampling – for when you really want to delve deep into the pollinators of a species.
• Trapping methods – including pan traps, vane traps, Malaise traps, and moth traps.
• Camera Traps – A non-intrusive way to capture who’s visiting flowers when you’re not looking.

We’ll break down the pros and cons of each technique, which approaches are best suited to the question being asked, what to consider before starting your own survey, and how your efforts can feed into national monitoring schemes like PoMS, the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme, and BeeWalk.

Whether you’re a curious beginner, a budding citizen scientist, a research student, or a conservation professional, this session will give you the knowledge and tools to design a pollinator survey that fits your goals — and helps protect the buzz behind biodiversity.

The 90-minute event will consist of a 1-hour presentation followed by a Q&A with the tutor using questions provided by the live audience.

The presentations will be recorded and shared with those who booked alongside Q&A transcripts and relevant links following the event via a password-protected website.

Skills For Ecology Webinars

Our Skill For Ecology webinars focus on technical skills useful in ecology and conservation roles, such as use of technology, field surveying and practical conservation skills.

This webinar is part of a series focusing on surveying insects:

1. Surveying For Dragonflies (Tue 23 Sep 2025 18:30 - 20:00)
2. Surveying For Pollinators (Thu 02 Oct 2025 18:30 - 20:00)
3. Surveying For Beetles (Tue 25 Nov 2025 18:30-20:00)

Pollinator Specialist: Prof Jeff Ollerton

Professor Jeff Ollerton is a consulting ecological scientist and author, with more than 30 years' experience studying pollinators and their flowers. He is the author of 'Pollinators & Pollination: Nature and Society' (Pelagic 2021) and 'Birds & Flowers: A 50 Million Year Relationship' (Pelagic 2024). Jeff is also a visiting Professor at the University of Northampton (UK) and the Kunming Institute of Botany (China).

Check out Jeff's entoLIVE presentation: Biodiversity Net Gain: What Could BNG Mean For Pollinators?