Bumble Bee Surveys at Wapello: June 2020

This morning, June 23rd, 2020 at 8:30 am our team of 4 met at the Wapello Land and Water Reserve in Hanover, IL to conduct a Rusty Patched Bumble Bee presence/absence survey. We received our Recovery Permit to conduct surveys of this endangered species from the FWS on May 30, 2020. The survey team is lead by @pmjohnson.

Throughout the survey, I assumed the role of documenting all flowering plants that serve as an available food source for Bumblebees and other pollinators. The observations in this journal entry serve as the full list of all flowering plants that we encountered during this survey.

Foxglove Beardtongue is mind-blowing right now. It is by far the most abundant flowering plant at Wapello at this time. We speculated that this is due to the fall burns and the spring rains. Perfect recipe for a stunning performance of foxglove beardtongue and spiderwort. A sea of flowers. You have to see it.

Posted on June 23, 2020 06:50 PM by jjhepker