A Citizen Science Project Exploring Bee Biodiversity in Northern Colorado
Native Bee Watch Newsletter #16
Welcome to the Native Bee Watch Newsletter! This newsletter provides the current buzz on bee monitoring, tips for best practice observing, and other fun, educational resources. Enjoy! 
Bee WILD for Pollinators! 

Thank you all for coming out to Wolverine Farm Letterpress and Publick House on June 14th to learn about bees and pollinators! We hope you learned new information and will be an advocate for pollinators! Happy Colorado Pollinator Month! 
Bee Monitoring Schedule  - Week of June 4th

Thursday, June 22nd - Gardens at Spring Creek
  • Diana D. 
  • Rosemary L. 
  • Ellen H.
  • Jud H. 

Friday, June 23rd - Trial Gardens
  • Lori N.
  • Ashley C.
  • Meg G.
  • OPEN SLOT FOR VOLUNTEER

Saturday, June 24th - Nix Farm
  • Susan H.
  • Kevin B.
  • Cassie M.
  • Kathy K.

Saturday, June 24th - Gardens at Spring Creek

  • Rosemary L. (Citizen Science Leader)
  • Sara White



We have one space left for a volunteer to sign up on Friday! Email Lisa if you are available at Lisa.Mason@colostate.edu
A striped sweat bee (top) at Nix Farm and volunteers monitoring at Nix Farm (bottom). Photos: Lisa Mason
More Citizen Science Sessions Available! 

Need to sign up for monitoring sessions?  Click here to look at the calendar.

Please email Lisa with the dates you would like to monitor. 

If you monitored bees last summer, you can add additional monitoring sessions to the calendar. Just let Lisa know the day and the garden. 

Bee of the Week - Squash Bees

Family - Apidae

Genus - Peponapis sp. 

Peponapis sp. are referred to as squash bees because they’re commonly found foraging for pollen and nectar in the flowers of squash plants. They can be spotted very early in the morning collecting right as the squash plants flower, often before daylight. They use their sense of smell to find flowers in the near-dark. By midmorning the squash flowers will have wilted and the females will go back to their nests. If you peel open a wilted squash flower you may find several male Peponapis sp. nested at the flowers base! Peponapis sp. are solitary bees but typically groups will cluster around their host squash plants and nest in the ground nearby.

Photo: Peponapis pruinosa in a squash plant. Credit: Tabby
Plant of the Week - Silver Fountain Butterfly Bush

Scientific name: Buddleia alternifolia 'Argentea'

The Silver Fountain butterfly bush is a very popular beautiful large shrub that blooms around mid-spring with lavender to violet flowers. When the blooms have wilted the plant still remains attractive because of its grey-green silver foliage. The silver fountain can reach heights of 12 to 15 feet and their width can be between 10 to 12 feet! Plant Select® recommends to not cut back all the way in the spring like other butterfly bushes but, instead to prune for shape and the size needed to fit your space. These lovely shrubs attract bees, butterflies, lady beetles, and moths. Some nectar feeding birds like orioles and bushtits forage on the flowers during the growing season too. 

Click here for more information. Photo: Plant Select®
A striped sweat bee at the Gardens on Spring Creek on June 7th. Photo: Lisa Mason
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