[Pollinator] Pollinator Week in Melbourne Australia!

Tue Nov 12 16:18:08 PST 2019

Thanks for sharing Rudie. And agree with your sentiment regarding how we
'value' insects. Whilst bees are my 'favourite', I honestly couldn't care
less whether they had any 'value' in terms of pollinating crops (and in
Australia most of the euryglossinae don't anyway, and as they are small and
swallow pollen, would be pretty poor pollinators anyway) - I just LOVE bees
because they are fascinating, beautiful and cute ^^ Each species is
valuable in that it's the amazing product of millions of years of evolution
- a combination of chance and natural selection. I always tell people that
wouldn't you hate it if you were only valued for what "services" you could
do for me and what economic value I could get out of you? haha.

On Wed, 13 Nov 2019 at 06:10, Rudie Kuiter <rudiekuiter at optusnet.com.au>
wrote:

> Hi all,
> Please find attached some pdf pages of bees in action. I'm researching
> orchid pollinators in Victoria and published my observation in books like
> the attached pages. In edition 4 I documented 146 orchid species
> pollinators. Of these 36 are wasps, 32 native bees and about 70 flies. Many
> orchid flower in Winter when no native bees are flying and these species
> depend on flies. With regards to 'pollinator week' all attention is on the
> bees and flies are rarely mentioned. We seem to be too occupied with food
> production and give the impression that it is up to the bees. All insects
> are important to ecosystems and many plants depend on them for their
> survival.
> Best wishes,
> Rudie
>
> On 12/11/2019, at 8:07 PM, Kit Prendergast wrote:
>
> Dear Peter, Jane and Malcolm,
> Pollinator Week has been running for a number of years now. I have been
> involved in doing 'Bee Bioblitz' and giving a presentation on native bees
> for the last two year. This year although it wasn't a registered activity I
> did a bee hotel workshop for children on Saturday in between helping out at
> a invertebrate stall at the WA Herpetology Society Expo at the showgrounds
> (photo attached...I wish there were more native bee themed dresses!)
>
> More to the point, I also created a facebook group called Bees in the
> burbs which has some citizen science projects that are not merely
> restricted to just one week. I have one for Western Australian members to
> record native bee observations, and they can share their photos on my
> facebook group for me to verify IDs (to genus level in most cases since
> species level requires physical specimens).
> https://www.facebook.com/groups/Beesintheburbs/
>
> I also have a global project on bee hotels that I would encourage everyone
> to contribute to.
> Please note that the group is not just restricted to 'burbs but
> everywhere! =D It started off locally but has since blossomed into a very
> active group with members from all sorts of habitats.
>
> To contribute to my citizen science project on bee hotels, I have a
> spreadsheet for people worldwide to record observation of bees (and other
> critters) at their bee hotels. To contribute to my citizen science project,
> click on the 'Announcements' tab in the left sidebar of the group page Bees
> in the burbs . A new tab will open up, and there are three spreadsheets.
> The first is for bee hotels (the other two for observations of native bees
> in WA in residential areas and in parks/bushland). You double click on the
> spreadsheet to be filled in (or right click and select Open with-> Google
> sheeets), and this will open up in a new tab. You then enter the data in a
> new blank row, according to the column headings. No need to fill all in,
> just what info you have available. Once you finish entering the data you
> want to input, click on a blank cell and wait for it to automatically save.
> Thanks!
>
> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hSdB-jWdbNZvMA4FVlZjv8XN_KiSUrfa/edit#gid=1415265979
>
> I share my findings of bee friendly flora for Australian bees with
> members, have albums with descriptions of the different genera to help
> people learn about the different native bee taxa, and also share scientific
> articles or summaries on the latest bee research (including my own), and
> critique #beewashing and other trends.
>
> Feel free to join, all are welcome :)
>
> Julie Armstrong - I have found there is a lot of misinformation regarding
> what flowers are actually suitable for supporting our native pollinators -
> those favoured by European honeybees are innappropriate for our more
> specialised species. Feel free to contact me to be involved in your Urban
> Landscape Planting List or if you require a scientific consultant to ensure
> bee friendly proposal are in fact good for native bees (I have seen a lot
> of terrible bee hotels for instance or seed bombs full of exotics).
>
> Kind regards,
> Kit
>
>
>
> On Sun, 10 Nov 2019 at 09:03, Peter Bernhardt <peter.bernhardt at slu.edu>
> wrote:
>
>> My former PhD advisor, Malcolm Calder, sent me the following link.  This
>> is something I never thought I'd see.  Let's hope they have it every year
>> and activities are covered by "The Science show."  Will it spread to every
>> Australian state?
>>
>> Peter
>> ------------------------------
>> *From:* Malcolm <acacias at bigpond.net.au>
>> *Sent:* Saturday, November 9, 2019 6:32 PM
>> *To:* Peter Bernhardt <peter.bernhardt at slu.edu>
>> *Subject:* [External] How Victoria's 'Snow in the Paddocks' melted away
>> - and is being saved
>>
>> Hi peter
>> I found this article from The Age that you might be interested in:
>> Today is the start of pollination week in Australia!!!  Can you imagine?
>> Check the link.
>> https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://Australianpollinatorweek.org.au__;!euKmGKuCglU!aVNYWm5cst2KaOwTWCcWSnEUszMsg0vPVzjNv1dLQs5NTqqEBaUDsVNaGmnBH43N$
>>
>>
>> https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.theage.com.au/environment/-p5379a.html__;!euKmGKuCglU!aVNYWm5cst2KaOwTWCcWSnEUszMsg0vPVzjNv1dLQs5NTqqEBaUDsVNaGoZDCTCh$
>>
>> Happy reading .     Malcolm and Jane
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
> --
> Kit Prendergast
> Native bee scientist, conservation biologist and zoologist
> PhD researcher (Curtin University) and Forrest Scholar
> ORCiD: *https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1164-6099
> <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1164-6099>*
> <74802022_495373304386293_7998773339168440320_n.jpg><PB090006.JPG>
>
>
> Rudie Kuiter
> rudiekuiter at optusnet.com.au
> Aquatic Photographics
> PO Box 124
> Seaford VIC 3198
> Australia
> 042 8418452
>

-- 
Kit Prendergast
Native bee scientist, conservation biologist and zoologist
PhD researcher (Curtin University) and Forrest Scholar
ORCiD: *https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1164-6099
<https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1164-6099>*
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