A WILDLIFE-loving Flintshire woman is winning friends online.

Bumblebee conservationist Amanda Williams, of Greenfield, near Holywell, has been ranked in the top 50 wildlife Twitter accounts by the Guardian newspaper.

Coming in at number 31, Amanda is among great company with organisations including the World Wildlife Fund, BBC Springwatch and National Geographic and wildlife expert and former Really Wild Show presenter Chris Packham on the list.

Twitter is an internet social networking service enabling users to send and read 140-character text messages known as tweets.

Speaking to the Leader about her achievement, the 39-year-old said: “I’m amazed to find myself among such brilliant organisations, some of them international. I was flabbergasted, I never would have expected it.

“I set up my account last December, when I became increasingly concerned about bees. This is the first time I have ever become involved with social media and I wouldn’t say I’m an expert, far from it.

“My tweets are quite mixed. For example, I provide web links to great plant lists for bees. I also share interesting facts about bees generally, and at times I can be very forthright about wider threats to bees, such as pesticides and GM foods.

“I promote messages for other wildlife organisations too.”

Followers of her tweets include BBC Gardeners’ World, the RSPB, Bill Oddie and Yoko Ono.

Amanda also gives talks about bees and recently spoke to Mostyn and District Gardening Club.

She said: “I have always loved bumblebees, I love all wildlife. A number of species of bees face extinction if we do nothing. A lot of people take them for granted.”

Amanda will be giving a talk at Holywell Library at 10.30am on July 9 and you can follow her Twitter account at http://twitter.com/helpthe bees.