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Native Bee Watch Newsletter #2
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Welcome to the Native Bee Watch Newsletter! This biweekly newsletter will provide the current buzz on bee monitoring, tips for best practice observing, the Bee and Plant of the Week, and other fun, educational resources. Enjoy!
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Happy National Pollinator Week!
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Nine years ago the U.S. Senate’s unanimous approval and designation of a week in June as “National Pollinator Week” marked a necessary step toward addressing the urgent issue of declining pollinator populations. Pollinator Week has now grown into an international celebration of the valuable ecosystem services provided by bees, birds, butterflies, bats and beetles.
The Pollinator Partnership is proud to announce that June 20-26, 2016 has been designated National Pollinator Week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of the Interior.
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Citizen Scientist Session Wednesday, June 22nd
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We are looking forward to observing bees again on Wednesday from 9am-11am. Please remember to wear a sun hat and sunscreen, and to bring a water bottle to your observation site. The temperatures are in the 80's and 90s this week!
Schedule
Gardens at Spring Creek
- Kate Bolster
- Carol Seemueller
- Linda Helm
- Carole Hossan
- Harry Rose
Nix Farm
- Colleen Fullbright
- Lori Nixon
- Barb Maynard
- Kate Rentschlar
CSU Trial Gardens
- Diana Dwyer
- Shelly Lynch
- Lori Nitzel
- Suzy Danford
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Remember: Send your pictures to lisa.mason@colostate.edu!
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Join Us For Bee Monitoring on July 2 or 3rd!
Start off your 4th of July weekend by helping us monitor bees! Saturday, July 2nd, we will be at the Gardens at Spring Creek. Sunday, July 3rd, we will be at Nix Farm Natural Area. Both sessions are from 9-11 am.
Please email Lisa at lisa.mason@colostate.edu if you are interested in attending!
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Photo of the Week - A Budding Young Scientist!
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Clover, daughter of volunteer Lori, came with her mom and helped monitor in early June. They paired up with volunteer, Lauri and made a great team observing bees! With the help of mom, Clover wrote down all the bee sightings on the data sheet. Clover's younger brother, Ansel also helped run the 2-minute timer.
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5 Easy Steps to Help Pollinators
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Since it is National Pollinator Week.... It is a good time to talk about easy things we can all do to support pollinators. Here are 5 things you can do:
- Pick the right plants
Plant native, flowering plants that are known to attract pollinators. Make sure to have flowering plants that will bloom all or most of the season. You can have a succession plan to ensure that pollinators will have food all season long. You can start small, and add new plants each year to make gardening more cost-effective and manageable.
- Color is important
Bees can see in color and ultraviolet light. Yellow, white, violet, and blue are all good colors for flowers. Bees can't see the color red because it looks similar to the color green in their eyes.
- Give them nesting spaces
Approximately 70% of bees are ground nesters. Patchy vegetation or places with open soil can provide nesting spaces. Avoid landscape fabric because bees can't dig through the fabric. Other bees are cavity nesters. You can provide human-made bee homes for them.
- Provide water
Bees need to drink water. Place a small, shallow water source near pollinator-friendly plants. A bird bath or other dish works well. A water source may also attract other birds or wildlife. Be sure to change the water often to help avoid mosquitos.
- Help spread the word
Educate your neighbors, friends, families, school and community groups about the importance of pollinators. Tell them about the bee monitoring you are doing this summer! The more of a buzz we can create, the better!
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Plant of the Week: Denver Gold® by Plant Select®
The bright yellow flowers on the Denver Gold Columbine® (Aquilegia chrysantha) can be over 3-inches long. They can bloom from May to autumn. This perennial can tolerate dry, shady growing conditions, but thrives in the sun. They generally grow between 28-32 inches in height, and can be 16-18 inches wide. To encourage longer blooming throughout the season, you can remove the flowers that are done blooming. The Denver Gold® variety is actually longer lived than most other columbines. The plant is well-adapted to grow at higher elevations. You can find this variety at the CSU Trial Gardens. We have observed striped sweat bees on the flowers this summer. Have you seen any other bees on the Denver Gold®? (Photo: Lisa Mason)
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Bee of the Week: Cuckoo Bees
A cuckoo bee is a cleptoparasitic bee that may come from about 16 social bee lineages including Bombus and Apidae, as well as 31 solitary bees, mostly in Apidae, Megachilidae, and Halictidae. Collectively, cuckoo bees make up a large portion of the bee population.
Cleptoparasitism describes the cuckoo bird-like behavior of laying their brood in the nests of other bees. They tend to look similar to the bees they parasitize and when their young are hatched, they will be tended by the host bees. Sometimes the queen of the host species will be killed and replaced by a cuckoo bee queen.
Cuckoo bees can be distinguished from other bees by their thickened exoskeletons and reduced hair quantities. They are not typically pollinators and lack pollen sacs and other features that would typically help with the job. Have you seen cuckoo bees this summer? (Photo: Diana Wilson)
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A striped sweat bee spotted at the CSU Trial Gardens on May 26th. Photo: Lisa Mason
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Native Bee Watch: A Citizen Science Project Exploring Bee Biodiversity in Northern Colorado
Website: nativebeewatch.wordpress.com Contact: Lisa Mason at Lisa.Mason@ColoState.edu
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