Bees, training, bees, outreach, bees…and more bees

We are hitting peak activity season (for volunteers — Linc is at peak activity all year round). It seems every weekend is filled with outreach opportunities, collecting events, and field training. It’s a good things the days are long!

If you have any feedback or submission for Field Notes or if you want to post notes for your regional team contact Ellen Silva (e.silva@comcast.net). Please try and get your submissions in the Monday before publication.

In this issue

Field Notes

Field training at O’loughlin farms - always a treat

The field training event at the O’Loughlins in McMinnville has it all: expert specimen handling training in a well equipped classroom, a field full of phacelia (say that three times fast) that attracts large numbers of bees ranging from bumbles to Eucera, and excellent instruction.

Photos below (and the featured photo at the top of this edition) are courtesy of Katie Simon.

OBA announcements

Same Canvas, Now with More Ways to Sign In!

Jen has been doing a lot of work behind the scenes setting up a brand-new registration portal through OSU’s Ideal-Logic that will allow people to register, pay, sign waivers, and gain access to Canvas all in one step. This will not impact existing members of the program at all.

It does provide you with a new option of logging in to Canvas if you’d like to explore that. This will be particularly useful for people who are enrolled in other OSU Extension courses (Master Gardener, Master Naturalist, other workshops), as you will now see everything in one place. You DO NOT need to create a new account, you can log in using your existing Canvas credentials.

Please note that the existing way of logging in to Canvas STILL WORKS and is a valid way to sign in. Play around and let me know if you have any questions.

Existing sign-in through the Canvas visitor portal: Click HERE

New Ideal-Logic portal: Click HERE

2022 Bee School Save-the-Date

We are pleased to confirm that we will hold our annual Bee School again this summer on the OSU campus in Corvallis. The dates are on the Calendar of Events and on our website, HERE.

We hope to have the registration link live within the next two weeks. Please note that we will give the Master Melittologists a priority registration window before the link is offered to the public.

Price: $400 for Master Melittologist participants / $1500 for the public

Main instructor:  Lincoln Best

August 8th - 12th, 2022: Intermediate course. The session is designed for people with limited prior experience, and is a prerequisite for the advanced course. We will be identifying specimens to genus, and typically do not recommend the course for Master Melittologists until they have completed their lab training.

August 15th - 19th, 2022: Advanced course. The session covers advanced topics suited to someone who has a few years of experience with identifying bees to the genus level. We will cover resources to identify specimens to species.

More info to come!

Calendar

Keep an eye on the calendar for last minute collecting events and field training opportunities. And if you are planning a collection outing and are open to company, please post it to Canvas to let others know.

Team news

If you want to include your own team’s news in the Roundup, send it to Ellen Silva (e.silva@comcast.net) the Monday before we publish (typically, the 1st and 3d Monday of the month).

PDX

Pollinator Palooza Outreach (open to all OBA members, but located in PDX area) — Contact: OBA member Mary Jo Mosby maryjomosby@gmail.com 503-332-5202

Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve in Hillsboro is hosting a Pollinator Palooza on June 25th from 11 am to 4pm. The Oregon Bee Atlas is participating and needs more volunteers to take shifts in the afternoon. 

Contact Mary Jo at 503-332-5202 or maryjomosby@gmail.com (OBA Member) to let her know you are available and interested ASAP! They need our names ahead of time, so please no drop-in volunteers (of course you can go to the event as a participant without notice).  

OBA Activities so far: Bee petting "zoo", Bee card game, Bee buzzer flyers, and Bee photo ops tied to a pledge! Possibly mason bee house, bee friendly plant seeds, Willamette Valley plant list cards, etc. The Pollinator Palooza activities will include a native plant sale, crafts, cricket spitting contest, prizes, and more! $5. at the door, kids three and under are free. 

Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve, 2600 SW Hillsboro Hwy, Hillsboro Oregon, 97123

Saturday, June 25th, 11am to 4pm. 

What’s blooming

Combing through iNaturalist over the last week, we note our volunteers have come across some great plants on the hit list or have found bees in areas of special interest. You should be able to revisit these sites. Remember to check the permit requirements for these sites in Canvas.

Silverleaf Phacelia - (Phacelia hastata) - Pam Hayes – Wheeler County (June 10)

Virgate Phacelia - (Phacelia heterophylla) - Sarah Malaby - Fremont-Winema National Forest (June 10)

Humboldt River Milkvetch (Astragalus iodanthus) - Maartin Van Otterloo - Harney County, OR (June 8)

Please remember to include images of the flower, the leaves, and the entire plant with all your submissions. Only include images of the plants you collect on, not bees.

miscellany (not to be missed)

Catch a Buzz

Catch a Buzz is July 6 at 7pm. To join, go to https://oregonstate.zoom.us/j/97230252365?pwd=TURyTXNMZ1M5SHl2TFQvajBxemtRdz09 | Password: bees

Remember to pay attention to upcoming events listed on the calendar. This Saturday is a collection training event at Mt Pisgah Arboretum with August Jackson. Even if the weather is not ideal for bee collecting, August is very informative and helpful and will surely make the trip well worth the effort. (Of historical interest - this event was June 4.)

Help new members by submitting collection day proposals (through Canvas). Your proposal will go through Jen before it's posted to ensure you've included the relevant details.

The Roundup gets updated every two weeks and you're all invited to submit articles to Ellen Silva. Also note that there is now a "team" section for local-to-you news.

Module 5 has been revised. Of note is the new and improved segment on tax deductions.

Heike Williams asked whether we should collect Bombus occidentalis (Western bumblebee) if we come across them. Andony said that yes, do collect B. occidentalis, as we need the data to help inform future actions. Note that our permit on USFS lands prohibits us from collecting queen bumblebees, but do aim for the drones and workers. Also, if you are out in the Siskiyous and you have any suspicion that you may have found a B. franklinii (which hasn't been seen in many years), contact Linc IMMEDIATELY.

Thanks to Martha Richards for keeping us up to date with these summaries!

How to Draw: Osmia

Marek Stanton brings us another helpful tutorial on how to draw native bees. This month, try your hand at an Osmia and learn its characteristic features as you sketch. Find the tutorial HERE.

What’s going on with Western Monarchs? We can help figure that out.

A recent Pollination Podcast featured Robert Coffan, co-founder of Western Monarch Advocates. In this episode, Andony and Robert discuss how helpful community science observations of monarchs are to understanding the conservation needs for these beautiful animals. Turns out we already use one of the most important tools for adding to monarch science — iNaturalist!

Next time you see an orange and black butterfly in the field, try to get a photo of it and upload it to iNaturalist. Just don’t add it to your Oregon Bee Atlas project!

Correction: The mason bee event reported on in the May 30, 2022 Roundup took place in the Washington County Master Gardener Education Garden at the Portland Community College Rock Creek Campus, not in the Learning Garden, which abuts the Master Gardener site. The editorial staff regrets the mistake.

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