This evening we found a few surprising things that people had dumped, fly-tipped and tossed into the bushes around Abbey Fields. Along with the usual wrappers, bottles, dog poo in bags and take away cartons we cleared up an iron - but an armchair and a set of pots and pans were to big for our sacks unfortunately.

A great Beewalk today, counting bumblebees for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. Anyone can create a route (needs to be approx 1k) and count bees between March and October to contribute to this vital data gathering project. More details at www.beewalk.org.uk. Today, Andy and Jo's eagle eyes helped us to spot an abundance of bumblebees - some busy, some less so! Huge thanks to everyone for supporting Colchester's local wildlife and capturing the all important numbers.

photo of Tree bumblebee (bombus hypnorum) supplied by Stuart.

Five goodgymers headed out in the darkening twilight to make Colchester a bit cleaner. Five bags of rubbish collected including a very wet shoe!

Hoping our litterpicking efforts encourage a tidier population!

Well done goodgymers, our first session in our new community led format. It's a team effort, come join us!

There’s nothing like a Beewalk (citizen science project for the Bumble Conservation Trust www.bumblebeeconservation.org) to get an up close look at the condition of our local wildlife. It’s been a tough year for this indicator species (down 80% in number through July compared to last year) but there was a glimmer of hope this month with the return of some bumblebees to our regular transect. Picture shows a Common Carder, Bombus Pascuorum we think.

Completed a Beewalk for August along our local transect. It was a huge relief to see a lot more bumblebees than during the previous two months - we hope this means that populations have recovered a little. Join in with this citizen science project by visiting www.beewalk.org.uk.

Photo supplied by Stuart. We believe this is an Early bumblebee (Bombus pratorum). We also saw white tailed bumblebees and common carders. There's lots of information about identifying bees on the Bumblebee Conservation Trust's website and via their Instagram account.

Collected five bags of rubbish in total - helping the wildlife and green spaces to breathe a little. Lots of odd items, but plenty of the usual suspects. Spotted a few butterflies, a great tit and some ducks on the river.