What Say the Insects?

Wilde Bee's 2025 Citizen Scientist Project is about observation.  

Okay, so we've read the books and the articles and listened to what other people had to say.  This project is about stepping to the side of that knowledge to see what the insects say.  Is it what you expected?  Are you experiencing things unexpected, and, if so, what? The goal is to center native insects in our pollinator aspirations by watching what the insects actually do in the spaces we are creating or fostering for them.  In the process of observing, you will learn more about insects native to the Northeast and about plants in your space.  Hopefully, the process of curious observation will spark some wonder, and you will see something that you haven't seen before.

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Every couple of weeks, if you are signed up for the project, you will receive a short prompt related to a 15 minute period of observation and a questionnaire about your experience.  The prompts will include links to educational resources.  

You may sign up anytime during the project, which will begin with the first prompt on June 24 and end with a last prompt the Tuesday after the last hard killing frost in the warmest zone with participants. When you sign up, start with the Welcome Survey under Introduction below, and then start with the prompt that calls to you.  The more weeks with shared observations, the better, but please don't stress--this is meant to be fun and interesting.  If you need to skip a couple weeks, hop back in when you can.  The information returned will be collated and shared (without attribution) on the website and via an observation report newsletter for participants throughout the season.

Your observations may be in your outdoor space or elsewhere. 

Let's get learning together! 

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To access a survey, click on the picture, and then click on the hyperlinked (underlined) date.

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Note: The surveys are posted in reverse chronological order, so, if you'd like to go back to older ones, scroll across/down.