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Bill Stitt will be at the Chippewa lake boat ramp Medina county Ohio again on Sunday September 22nd at noon to observe the aster mining bee aggregation. Today we saw agopostemon, nomada and sphecodes bees along with hundreds of male aster mining bees and 20-25 females. By Sunday there should be many more females and the aster flowers should be more in bloom. Come out and join me to observe this very cool aggregation. Any questions please call me 440-319-1693

Hello! You’re invited to a free program on May 23rd at Stratford Ecological Center in Delaware (map here), sponsored by Stratford and OSU Entomology. Dave Noble will be teaching “The business end of honey bees, for non-beekeepers,” including the economics of beekeeping, pollination, honey, hive products (propolis, pollen, wax…), bees, queens, etc. Dave will discuss how beekeepers manage hives to produce and profit from these different products. We’ll begin with indoors, then we’ll head out to visit the bees after lunch.

10:15 — gather

10:30 to 3:00 indoors and outdoors with Dave Noble and the bees

No fee to attend. Bring your lunch and dress for the outdoors and the bee yard (light pants and closed-toe shoes recommended, no heavy perfumes or cosmetics).

Hope to see you there! Register here so we know you’re coming.

Hello all! I hope you’re saving May 23rd to gather at Stratford Ecological Center in Delaware (map here). Dave Noble will be teaching our Volunteer Pollinator Specialists “The business end of bees, for non-beekeepers.” Dave will begin with an indoor indoors, then will take us out to visit the bees after lunch.

9:45 — come early if you have some bees you’d like to ID.

10:30 to 3:00 indoors and outdoors with Dave Noble and your VPS friends

No fee to attend. Bring your lunch and dress for the outdoors and the bee yard (light pants and closed-toe shoes recommended, no heavy perfumes or cosmetics).

Register here so we know you’re coming.

Hope to see you there! Questions? Just let me know!

Hi all! Here are some upcoming events:

2/10

Bee pinning and ID at wolf creek environmental in Sharon center, Medina county. Come anytime between 12noon and 5 for bee ID and pinning. Bill will also bring some mason bee parchment sleeves to open.

3/29

OSU Pollinator Summit at the 4-H Center in Columbus. Look for registration to open next week!

5/23

VPS 18 regrouping at Stratford Ecological Center in Delaware, with the wonderful Dave Noble! The Business End of Bees (for non-beekeepers). 10:30 to 3, bring your lunch, no fee. More details to follow!

10/30

One Day Insect University, 4-H Center in Columbus. Tracks include pollinators, citizen science and garden pests. Registration details to follow!

Bill Stitt has offered to organize a get together for pinning and ID work on the bee collection. If anyone needs directions or has any questions, please contact Bill: beehavenfarm@hotmail.com

If anybody wants to get together and pin/ID bees, we could meet at Wolf Creek Environmental Center, Medina County Parks on February 10th anytime between 12-5 pm. Let Bill know if that works. Right now we have 3-4 people interested!

I always find the last specialization training session to be bittersweet! By this time, the group has really started to gel and we’ve learned who has expertise in different areas. I appreciate the sentiment shared by some that the class needs to go on and on, since we all have so much to learn and so much opportunity to learn from each other! Thanks to all of you for your kind “thank you” for my role in the class. Working with this program is truly one of the most fulfilling parts of my work!

And for those of you who simply haven’t had enough, the registration for the 2019 Volunteer Pollinator Specialization based out of Columbus is now open for 2018 participants. If you’d like to sign up to participate again, please do so in the next week. After that time, the registration will open to others (and I anticipate filling up quickly). Cost to participate is $200 for 2018 class members ($250 for newbees).

As I mentioned in Wooster, this class will spend less time traveling and more time in the field and classroom on bee ID. We will also work on bumble bee ID both in the fieldand on iNaturalist. Below are the scheduled dates. Just like our class, the only required session is the February 11 and 12 orientation.

2/11 and 2/12, Chadwick Arboretum on the OSU Main Campus

3/28, OSU Pollinator Summit, Main Campus

4/24, Franklin Park Conservatory

5/16, Stratford Ecological Center, Delaware

6/11, Franklin Park

6/16-22, Bee Blitzes across Ohio

7/11, Chadwick Arboretum

8/3, Chadwick Arboretum

9/5, Meadow visits

10/10 Chadwick Arboretum

10/30, One Day Insect University, OSU

11/13, Chadwick Arboretum

I’ll follow up again with future dates to get together whether or not you’re not taking the 2019 class, including the January 17th (9:30 to 12) session in Wooster with Jennifer Thieme of Monarch Joint Venture.

I hope you all have a happy holiday season!

Hi again! Here is an evaluation of our VPS class. You can either fill out the form below, or fill out a paper copy tomorrow, or print out this form and send it back to me. Some people like paper copies. However you respond, don’t feed obligated to answer in complete sentences if a few words or thoughts will get your point across. Thanks in advance for your candid comments and constructive criticism!

Hi all! Jason Neumann at the Cincinnati Nature Center is offering a Certified Interpretive Guide course in 2019, and asked me to pass on the details to our VPS class. See the info and date poll below. To get on Jason’s contact list about this program, please send him an email:  Jneumann@cincynature.org

Certified Interpretive Guide (CIG) course at Cincinnati Nature Center

CNC will be running our annual CIG course in late August but there’s sufficient interest to run a second course in the winter or early spring. To help me select a date that best meets everyone’s schedule, please complete a date poll by following this link:

https://doodle.com/poll/v3bhtez6sqzd2cg3

Based on responses, I will select a week and set up a course. I will notify you when the course is open for registration through National Association for Interpretation.

Note that there should be a very limited number of rooms available for rental in our guest/intern house (shared common space and cooking area, private bedrooms).

Thanks for your interest.

Jason

Jason Neumann | Public Programs Manager 
4949 Tealtown Road | Milford, OH 45150
(513) 831-1711, ext. 221  
www.CincyNature.org