Join our Wild Pollinator Count

Looking for an excuse to spend ten minutes observing the pollinators in your garden or nearby? Of course you are!

I'm sure you know that as well as European honeybees, there are loads of other pollinators. Not just my personal favorites (native bees!) but also all sorts of beetles, flies, butterflies and more. And relatively little is known about them.

Dr Manu Saunders, an ecologist at Charles Sturt Uni, and I have teamed up to create a pollinator observation project. We hope to gather some data about local pollinators as well as trial this approach. We'd love you to get involved.

The concept is simple - on a sunny day, sometime in the week of November 9th to 15th, spend ten minutes watching some flowers. Then share your observations of the pollinators you see on our project website - www.wildpollinatorcount.wordpress.com.

You can do just one ten-minute count, or do a few. You might observe in the same or different spots, or on different flowers, during the week. We've even made a printable tally sheet, to help you keep track. Or you can flex your own record-keeping skills to gather your data (c'mon, I'm not the only one who loves a challenge that involves recording details, surely!?).

There are lots of resources and photos on the website to help you identify the insects you see - and even if you're not sure of the identification, you can record the details you did notice. You can also upload photos, if you wish.

We are focussing the count on Albury/Wodonga, but would love to have contributions from North East Victoria and Southern NSW too, so please pass this on to anyone you think may be interested in participating.

As this is the first time we are running it, we also welcome any positive or negative feedback about the project and/or ideas as to how we might improve on it in future!

For more information please visit the Wild Pollinator Countwebsite. Go on - give it a crack!

Dr Ken Walker on tour

Wow, what a week! Dr Ken Walker's visit to our area is going to be pretty hard to summarise, but here goes ...

Over three very busy days last week Dr Walker very generously gave five public presentations, ran two school group activities, was featured in three local media stories and even made it along to a BBQ dinner. To what end, you might ask? Anyone who heard him speak on about native Australian bees and/or BowerBird.org.au will tell you Dr Walker is not only passionate about sharing and engaging everyone in science, but he's helped to make it easy to do so.

Dr Walker's talks on native bees captivated and challenged those present to think beyond European honey bees, and to appreciate the many adaptations and co-evolution of the 2,000 or so native bee species with Australian native plant species. And boy, did he have some amazing photos, videos and facts to wow audiences with.

At the events at Wirraminna, Wangaratta (daytime) and Frayne College, participants also had a chance to get out in the field with Dr Walker. At Frayne, he challenged students to find a Eucalypt leaf without any insect damage. In the process, the students found all sorts of critters, eggs, larvae, galls, flies, wasps, spiders, and much more ... most of which were captured in photos to be added to the BowerBird website. Students and adults alike learnt from Dr Walker's techniques with a bug net, as well as his prowess at identification and recall of scientific names!

Image: some photos from Dr Walker's visit to Frayne College, Baranduda.

Click here for more shots from this event.

Even at the events where there wasn't a chance to 'get out amongst it', Dr Walker encouraged all participants to keep their eyes peeled and to share what they see using the BowerBird website. He outlined a number of sightings made by members of the public and uploaded to BowerBird, where new species or indeed evidence of 'not previously recorded' species, have been identified thanks to the efforts of 'citizen scientists'. If this grabs your fancy, you can also check some of them out on the Bowerbird facebook page -https://www.facebook.com/BowerBirdAus.

As a result of Dr Walker's visit, there are some new local projects on the BowerBird site including two for sightings in specific locations, namely Wirraminna Environmental Education Centre at Burrumbuttock and the National Environment Centre at Thurgoona; and one for any sightings in gardens or locations around Albury-Wodonga for members or followers of Seed Savers Albury-Wodonga. You can follow them via those links, or use the detailed instructions here to create your own BowerBird account and tailor what you follow according to your own interests. 

Many, many thanks to Dr Ken Walker for entertaining, enthralling and enthusing us! Thanks as well to all who participated, and to the organisations and individuals that supported and hosted Dr Walker's visit.

And be sure to check out BowerBird.org.au to add your sightings to contribute to the 'citizen science' side of our collective knowledge.