Diario del proyecto Washington Native Bee Society

We have passed 20,000 bee observations. What an incredible achievement. Thank you for spotting bees and posting them. More thanks go to the people that visit and help with identifications!

Also thank you for having patience with our persnicketiness with Pyrobombus and making sure our bees are really PNW bees and not eastern bees that the Computer Vision suggested. The CV needs 100 observations of each new bee at "Research Grade" before it will learn about them, so please keep finding and posting those less common bees from multiple sightings. We are working together to build a strong and scientific project.

If you have not already figured this out, clicking on [SPECIES] while the project page is open will sort all our bees into their designated groups. The bees at the top of the list are our most commonly photographed. The bees down below are more rare. Some are identified to genus or subgenus so far, though some few are only to family (which was where we began in Oct of 2020!. Of 160 bees identified to "species" about 130 are actually to species and a few more are identified as bees that do not live in Washington, so thanks go to the people that followed the Computer Visions suggestions, but have agreed to change their IDs to a more correct identification.

There are at least 600 native bee species that were historically found in Washington. It will take people like you interested in native bees and willing to keep looking in all the different eco-regions for us to come close to finding all most of them.

Thank you all and keep up the great work!

July 28th at 7:30pm on Zoom

The miniature world of bees on flowers must be the inspiration for every magical fairy wonderland ever portrayed in art. It's hard not to reach for a camera to capture a brief moment of the beauty. As more people have taken to the calling of native bees in recent years, the craft of photographing them has taken stunning leaps. For this presentation, we'll explore macro photography with a focus on the unique challenges that come with bees, the benefits and drawbacks of various camera platforms and techniques, and some of the unusual intangibles that come with the territory. Whether you’re a seasoned shutter clicker or just getting into the game, there's likely to be something of interest for you.

To register, fill out the form at this link on our website:
https://www.wanativebeesociety.org/event-bee-photography-joe-dlugo