Where's Rusty?'s Journal

September 14, 2021

Where's Rusty Results Are In

The PolliNation DC Team took a mid-summer break. We are back to chasing pollinators and enjoying the natural progression of pollinator life cycles as species come and go until next year.

A big shout out to everyone that went searching for the Rusty Patched Bumble Bee in the DMV. Sixty four bee-minded observers made 139 observations of six bumble bee species, and 17 bee savvy folks made an impressive 225 identifications. Kudos to John Ascher for his generous support in making 50 ids! Also high-fives to perobi, Michael J. W. Carr, and Izabella Farr for contributing 10 or more observations. Photographing bees isn't easy. Flowers move in the wind, bees seem to be in constant motion darting from flower to flower, and often don't give a good view of the features needed to make an id. It takes patience, perseverance and beating the odds to get a good photo, and there were many. In fact, 52% were elevated to 'research grade'.

In order of relative abundance: Common Eastern Bumble Bee (85), American Bumble Bee (5), Golden Northern Bumble Bee (2), Brown-belted Bumble Bee (2), Lemon Cuckoo Bumble Bee (2), and Two-spotted Bumble Bee (1).

No observations of the Rusty Patched Bumble Bee were made. That's okay, and we can try again next summer and see if we can collect more bumble bee species and answer the question, "Where's Rusty?"

Many thanks from the PolliNation DC Team. We like hearing from everybody, so send your thoughts and suggestions on how we can do a better job recruiting and helping participants collect observations of pollinators.
Until next time,

The PolliNation DC Team
PolliNationDC@si.edu

Posted on September 14, 2021 05:47 PM by kearins kearins | 0 comments | Leave a comment

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