How Can WE Help the Birds and the Bees?

I’ve been enjoying our garden today. Planting the Christmas tree at the top of our rockery and cleaning a few things including the froggy water feature that Sid insists on drinking out of.

While I have enjoyed a few hours in the sun and relative peace and quiet, ignoring the jets into Heathrow, it saddens me the decline of insects in the garden.

Red ants have taken up home behind the solar panel but instead of 10,000 midges there are a few hundered, instead of bees and butterflies hovering around the flowers there is a random cabbage patch a few flies.

What can we do to help. I was going to ask ChatGPT but it’s so popular, snails work faster 😉 So I asked Google for an appropriate nature ai robot and it said, try Perplexity.ai so I did.

https://www.perplexity.ai/search

I wanted an image to illustrate the decline and so asked Google again for an image ai and one response was Canva. I use Canva for producing my flyers and directories but hadn’t thought to use its ai to create graphics… it gave me this…

What is the current rate of decline of uk’s pollinators and what can individuals with gardens do to help improve things

Current Rate of Decline of UK Pollinators

Pollinator decline in the UK remains a serious concern, with recent data indicating significant drops in populations, especially among wild bees and butterflies:

• Wild Bees: Over a quarter of British wild bee species are experiencing weak or strong long-term declines. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust reported that 2024 was the worst year for bumblebees since monitoring began, with numbers down by more than 20% compared to the previous decade. The Red-tailed Bumblebee, a common species, declined by 74% in 2024, likely due to adverse weather conditions 13.
• Butterflies: More than half of the UK’s butterfly species are now in long-term decline. In 2024, 51 out of 59 species declined compared to the previous year, making it one of the worst years on record for butterflies. Common garden butterflies had their second-worst year since 1976 69.
• General Trends: While some pollinator species (especially generalist bees) are stable or increasing, many specialist species with narrow habitat or floral requirements are declining. Habitat loss, pesticide use, and climate change are key drivers 28.

What Gardeners Can Do to Help

Individuals with gardens can play a crucial role in supporting pollinator populations. Key actions include:

• Grow a Variety of Pollinator-Friendly Plants: Fill gardens with a diverse range of flowers, especially those marked with the RHS “Plants for Pollinators” logo, to provide nectar and pollen across the seasons 7.
• Let Lawn Weeds Flower: Reduce mowing frequency to allow clover, dandelions, and other ‘weeds’ to bloom, offering vital early food sources 7.
• Provide Water: Shallow dishes with stones or marbles give pollinators a safe place to drink 7.
• Avoid Pesticides: Refrain from using pesticides, especially on open flowers, as these chemicals can harm pollinators directly or indirectly7.
• Create Nesting and Overwintering Sites: Leave bare patches of earth, install bee hotels, and maintain log piles or undisturbed corners for nesting and shelter 7.
• Participate in Citizen Science: Join monitoring schemes such as the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (PoMS), BeeWalk, or butterfly counts to contribute valuable data for conservation efforts 2.

By taking these steps, gardeners can create vital refuges for pollinators and help counteract wider landscape declines. Even small changes in private gardens collectively make a significant difference for the UK’s pollinator populations 7.

Thank you ai for providing some answers.

Now to find my collection of beach pebbles I can add to the later water feature for the pollinators to drink from.

Thank you.

Jon Davey
Community Champion