Bee Walk Report 27th March 2024

After consultation with Billy Flynn of Flynn Furney Ecologists, it was agreed that a route through St Davnet’s Park had the best potential for a formal bumble bee transect.  A 1.4km route was mapped out from Old Cross Square through St Davnet’s Park and back to the new Peace Campus on Plantation Road.  The transect was divided into 7 distinct sections which had different plants, flowers and trees along the route.  

This survey was led by four participants on the programme.  The event was planned as the first bumble bee survey for 2024.   The four trainees met and walked the route with the RBCT facilitator to agree and finalise the event plan and carry out the risk assessment.  Broken glass was found on  the route and cleaned up before the formal event took place.  The trainees each took a section of the transect and delivered their script.  One of the highlights was finding an earth bank on the route which had all the signs of a bumble bee hibernation site with small tunnels into the bank.   At the end of the event the trainees completed the official monitoring return required by the National Biodiversity Data Centre. 

Impact & Results

The attendees learned about the important role bumble bees perform in Ireland.    The four trainees delivered their script in a confident and entertaining way.  Each brought a little snippet of interesting facts about bumble bees from their research.   All four trainees gave a commitment to continue the formal bumble bee monitoring survey every month for 2024.