Kelly M O'Brien

Listening to pollinators

 Attention is the beginning of devotion.

-Mary Oliver, Upstream

A correlated theme has emerged from my research around the idea of empathy for nature. In addition to my meadow restoration project, my personal experience of feeling deep compassion for vanishing species led to me want to find ways we can take broader and more impactful action on nature’s behalf.

There is growing evidence that ‘nature connectedness’ is a pathway to climate action and repair. The University of Derby Nature Connectedness Research Group is partnering with national nature conservation NGOs to develop programming based on this idea.

What if we listened to the pollinators in their natural habitats? What stories will they share? What might they tell us about what they need? How might they clarify how to collaborate with them, to care for and repair the ecosystems both they and we rely on for survival?

Bioacoustics is the practice of listening to nature through sensory devices and interpreting the data to answer some of these questions. Listening to Pollinators is a project that aims to develop these ideas into something tangible, sharable, informative, and inspiring.

Field research: field margins, pollinators, and bioacoustics

Our local farmer at Poplar Farm (BA2 9HX) is transitioning operations to include sustainable agriculture practices. As part of a Countryside Stewardship grant, in 2021 the farmer added flower-rich grass margins to the borders of several arable fields. These landscapes teemed with pollinators and birds from early Spring through late Fall. I have permission from the farmer to install acoustic sensors on these sites. I am also looking for other sites, both rural and urban.

My aim is to begin learning how the system (or similar) works, what data it captures, and what the outputs are. From there, I will consider how to transform these inputs into a visual vocabulary and audience engagement for calls-to-action on the pollinators’ behalf.