Rusty Patched Bumblebee ID contest

Rusty Patched Bumblebee (Photo by Becky Wolter)

The Greater Longfellow area is a Community Wildlife Habitat, and this year it was chosen as a Lawns to Legumes Demonstration Neighborhood by the state of Minnesota's Board of Water and Soil Resources to plant native plants and save threatened pollinators - especially the state bee, the federally endangered Rusty Patched Bumblebee.

Submit a verified Rusty Patched Bumblebee sighting to the www.bumblebeewatch.org website or app to win a contest for the Greater Longfellow area.

• Adult - $50 1st Prize

• Under 18 - $50 Kid Prize. The website doesn’t indicate if the observer is under 18 years old, so if you’re a parent or guardian of a young citizen scientist, please email Daniel at dschultz6@comcast.net to inform him.

• $50 Grand Prize: Whoever gets the most number of confirmed Rusty Patched Bumblebee sightings in 2020 will win this prize.

Begin by creating an account at www.bumblebeewatch.org, then upload one to three good photos of your sighting, and it will be vetted by highly qualified bee experts. After they review it, they will identify it (if they can), and mark it as a “verified” sighting. Once confirmed, please email Daniel to let him know.