Flower and Pollinator Surveys

We started going out and learning to recognise wildflowers in bloom in 2021. We recorded over 50 species of local wildflowers from mid-May to mid-July via irecord a widely used nationwide recording system where you can record any sighting of flora or fauna via their App or website.

We also tried various techniques for recording pollinators which are categorised as it is too difficult to identify individual species for many of them.

This year we plan to use a nationwide pollinator survey scheme where we can enter our data online enabling comparison with other places in the UK. This uses the same invertebrate categories as we used before. More detail here: https://ukpoms.org.uk/ We plan to carry out the 10 minute surveys.

Please get in touch if you would like to join us. Please email ascot.wildlife@gmail.com. Also let us know if you know an area worth surveying.

Alternatively you can carry out your own survey in your garden or local area and record the results online to add to the important collection of data which informs the experts of changes in species numbers and distribution over the years and helps plan actions supporting nature to survive and recover.

A good smartphone App for identifying wildflowers is Seek by iNaturalist but do double check results before making a record as it can be mistaken!