Conducted two House Sparrow surveys at dawn, one month apart for the Essex Wildlife Trust.

House Sparrow populations have declined by 69% in England since the 1970s, so Essex Wildlife Trust recently launched a citizen science project to find out why. They recruited over 1000 volunteers to survey urban habitat, to gather data on the House Sparrow's abundance and preferred habitat.

It was fantastic to spend time with and observe the local bird population at dawn, with 22 different species counted during the second survey.

If you can, take advantage of EWT's late night openings this week to see the Nightingales at Fingringhoe Wick - wow, what an experience!

Met up in Castle Park to carry out another monthly bumblebee survey for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. Lots of new flowers in bloom, and plenty of solitary bees buzzing about, but not that many bumblebees this time. All data will be uploaded to the BBCT website for their UK wide data set. If you'd like to get involved, set up your own transect near where you live, to contribute to this vital citizen science project, or join us next month.

Picked up litter, in the sunshine.

A lovely sunny evening for seven GoodGymers to support Colchester in Bloom by helping out at the allotment. This session focused on clearing out the greenhouses and tackling the overgrown beds through digging and weeding.

We were delighted to welcome a new member, Madeleine, to the group. Maddie got stuck straight in to the digging and weeding!

With a strong team effort, we made great progress, much to the delight of Pam from Colchester in Bloom, who was thoroughly impressed with how much we managed to achieve in one evening.

We’re already looking forward to returning to the allotment soon to continue the good work!

Gathered up lots of litter around the neighbourhood, including a large saw and a big mouldy holdall.

Persuaded two friends who are new to parkrun to give volunteering a go. We cheered and supported all the runners and walkers, and they enjoyed it so much, they want to do it again!

Three goodgymers met up in Castle Park to count bumblebees for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust's citizen science project. Bumblebees start emerging from hibernation around now, so we weren't expecting to see very much, especially as there isn't much in bloom yet, but much to our surprise, there were busy bumblebees in several sections of the route! We identified some queen buff-tailed bees, a few common carders, and even some worker white tails, which we will be recording on the BBCT website later. Congratulations to Luke on his first goodgym good deed, and for spotting so many bees. 🐝 🐝 🐝