11/04/2021
Bumble Bee Watch
October 2021
Happy Fall, Bumble Bee Watchers!
Bumble bee activity has wrapped up in most places by now and we want to thank you for a phenomenal season. A large milestone was reached this year—over 100,000 observations of bumble bees have been submitted! Amazing! In this eNews, you'll find information for an upcoming event to learn more about overwintering bumble bees called Queen Quest, an interview with an allstar Bumble Bee Watch contributor, and insight for exploring your own contributions to Bumble Bee Watch.
Get Ready for Queen Quest
Queen Quest is an annual event that aims to uncover the wonders of overwintering bumble bee queens. This event begins this Saturday, October 16th and runs through fall and winter. To participate, gather a group of interested friends and learn the simple protocol.
Learn More
Bumble Bee Watch Allstar from Quebec
Daniel Potvin-Leduc joined Bumble Bee Watch in July of 2018 and has since contributed ~1,000 observations of 19 different species! Victoria MacPhail, a Bumble Bee Watch partner, had the opportunity to interview Potvin-Leduc about his experience participating in Bumble Bee Watch.
Read Q & A
Exploring Your Contributions
Have you ever wondered how many records you’ve submitted to Bumble Bee Watch (B*W) or how many different species you've observed? Would you like an easy way to see all your photos or a map of all your observations? The B*W website has all these features and more.
Life List (Species Badges)
Are you familiar with “life lists”, or lists that include all the species of a certain group you have seen? Life lists are very common among the birding community and can also be used to track bumble bees! For each verified species you have submitted, you gain a new species badge. We encourage you to collect as many as you can!
To view your current badges, navigate to your profile by clicking on your username in the top right corner.
Personalized Maps
You may be familiar with the Map feature on B*W, but did you know you can apply filters to only view your records?
To view you personalized map:
1. Select Map (in the black toolbar), select Bumble Bee Sighting (or Nest Sighting for any nest observations).
2. Enter your username into the Observer box and select your name from the dropdown list.
3. Click Search.
Heat Maps
A neat way of seeing where you concentrate your observations is by viewing the Heat Map.
To view your personalized heat map:
1. Select Explore Data (in the black toolbar), then Heat Maps.
2. Enter your username into the Observer box and select your name as it appears in the dropdown list.
3. Click Search.
Photo Gallery
Thanks to each of you submitting photos, Bumble Bee Watch has an impressive gallery of species images! This is a powerful tool that can be used to improve or confirm your identifications if you use the Gallery feature to view verified photos. You can also use the filters as explained above to view photos from a particular area, or from a specific observer.
These are just a few of the ways you can explore the data on Bumble Bee Watch. There are also lists of the top contributors by region, can you "unseat" one of the top contributors for a region? This is a fun and easy way to get outside and enjoy nature while contributing to pollinator conservation. Remember, you can submit photos you may have taken in the past, as long as you know when and where they were taken!
Thank you!
We appreciate all of the amazing efforts of our participants, from coast to coast and north to south across Canada and the United States. Thanks to the dedication of more than 35,000 participants who submit their observations, Bumble Bee Watch is a substantial resource to help understand bumble bee populations. Each of your submissions helps to inform on-the-ground conservation across the continent!
Thank you for your contributions to bumble bee conservation!
STAY IN TOUCH
bumblebeewatch.org
Banner photo: Queen burrowed in the soil. Emily May/Xerces Society.
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xerces.org/donate.
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