Bees in Your Backyard, a special workshop for OSU phenology cooperators

Join author and biologist Olivia Carril on June 1 for this special workshop in Worthington:

Bees in Your Ohio Backyard

June 1, 9:30 to 3PM 

Northwest Library, 2280 Hard Road

Columbus, OH 43235

The session will include classroom time,  time spent with microscopes, and exploration in the field.

Please bring your lunch! Coffee and light refreshments provided.

Register here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc_G-GwgCW7XBIYf2HwDDkd5RUYwM0eergNNarprhBEX57Dtg/viewform?usp=sf_link

Questions? Please let me know!

Spring Update follow up!

Thanks to everyone for a great turnout at yesterday’s OSU Phenology Network spring update! Visit our garden network website here.

I promised to follow up with several items, including how to register for the free Bees in Your Backyard session on June 1st at the NW library in Worthington with Olivia Carril, open to all active Network cooperators. The session will run from 9:30AM to 3PM, and will include indoor bee ID and biology, time spent under microscopes, and time in the field catching and releasing bees. Cooperators can register here.

If you haven’t already done so, you can create account with The Great Sunflower Project and learn more about monitoring for pollinators here.

I will clarify the “flower number” definitions for all our plants, and will post updates as soon as I can put materials together.

Yesterday’s powerpoint program is embedded on our website here.

A general phenology powerpoint program can be found here. You can download by clicking on the settings wheel, then customize on your computer.

Our session included information on the Ohio Pollinator Advocate program. Here’s a link to that website, which includes powerpoints and other resources.

The ‘Lemon Queen’ sunflower seeds handed out yesterday are for you, just for fun. Don’t feel like you have to include them in your phenology garden, and it’s up to you whether you want to monitor the sunflowers for pollinators through The Great Sunflower Project.

Similarly, the flat of native perennials is to enhance your phenology garden if appropriate. Don’t feel obligated to monitor these plants unless you have the time and cooperators to do so.

I’m checking into possibilities for ordering metal stakes, although most suppliers I know of are out of business. I have one lead to follow, and I’ll let everyone know what I learn.

Here’s the link to request engraved labels for your phenology plants.

Other links I wanted to share:

Special thanks to Jason Veil and Paul Snyder for leading arboretum walks, to Bob Filbrun and Jeni Filbrun for growing our plants, and to Karen Edgington for help with set up and clean up yesterday.

And thanks to all for your continued involvement with the Ohio Phenology Garden Network! We have an amazing group of cooperators, and I’m consistently proud to work with this project.

Denise

 

 

OSU Phenology: create an account with the Great Sunflower Project for pollinator data

As was shared at yesterday’s phenology update, here are details on our new pollinator data entry process:

Create an account with GSP here.

We will be collaborating with The Great Sunflower Project (GSP), a program coordinated by Dr. Gretchen LeBuhn from San Francisco State University. The Great Sunflower Project began in 2008, and now has about 100,000 citizen scientists collecting data on pollinator visitation across North America! GSP is in need of Ohio data, and Gretchen is excited about our addition of cooperators and our rich Ohio data!

The Ohio Phenology Garden Network’s data collection methods are very similar to GSP’s so hopefully the transition will be relatively painless! Many things remain the same: We will monitor pollinator visitation on each plant in our gardens for 3 minutes, once a week when in bloom. In this intro video, Gretchen describes the GSP flagship project monitoring ‘Lemon Queen’ sunflowers. This monitoring is for 15 minutes, but we’re sticking with 3 minutes.

Our plant phenology data collection site will not change for 2018.

This site describes the data collection process.

Here’s a short video that outlines the process described below:

Thanks in advance for your patience as we make this transition! Be sure to let me know what questions you have: ellsworth.2@osu.edu