Beewalks

A fair weather walking group that surveys bumblebees and looks out for other pollinators along the way, over a walk of about two to three kilometres. Members are taught first to identify the queens of the common species, then the workers and males as colonies form, and later the rarer bumblebees that live on the north Kent coast. The group leader is a volunteer for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust and gives practical guidance on how to observe bumblebees and how to net, pot and release them safely, and encourages anyone who wants to take photographs. The group walks from March to October only, meeting at 2pm outside the visitor centre at Riverside Country Park on the third Thursday of the month, with a second option on the second Thursday at the Motney Hill car park at the same park. Bumblebees are sensitive to temperature, so there is no surveying on cold or wet days, and heavy rain moves a walk to another date.