Bumblebee Survey? Hopefully.

At a prairie in northern Illinois we gathered to discuss plans to conduct a presence/absence survey for the endangered Rusty Patched Bumblebee (B. affinis). We came prepared with field guides, ID charts from BeeSpotter, and one excellent photographer.

This prairie and the surrounding area have been designated by the USFWS as a "High Potential Zone" for presence of the B. affinis. Due to this designation, I understand that I will need to obtain a Recovery Permit from the FWS in order to conduct any surveys that could involve handling of a B. affinis. I understand this also includes butterfly surveys and monarch tagging, because there is a chance of capturing one while netting for other insects. So until we can secure a Recovery Permit from USFWS, we will be taking pictures for our survey and looking to the iNat and BeeSpotter community for help confirming our IDs.

We discovered that taking pictures of Bumblebees is very difficult without handling them. These are some of our observations from our practice session. We will see how this photo-only survey turns out next year.

Meanwhile, we are working on obtaining a Recovery Permit.

Publicado el 05 de noviembre de 2019 a las 04:54 PM por jjhepker