In Dr. Seuss’s Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? there’s a Bee Watcher whose “…job is to watch…is to keep both his eyes on the lazy town bee. A bee that is watched will work harder, you see.”
When watching doesn’t result in harder work from the bee, a watcher is assigned to watch the Bee Watcher, and a watcher to watch the Bee Watcher-watcher…and so on.
Those poor Bee Watchers! But how lucky YOU are to watch in much better and fascinating circumstances! All this is a roundabout way of introducing a Bee Watcher Feature on the blog. We’ve featured many bees – and will feature more – but we’d also like to feature watchers!
To start, we have a photo of Bee Watcher Mary Ellen Heavner at Pearson Place and Skillman Ave., between Sunnyside and Long Island City (photo credit: Cody Landis).
Mary Ellen reports, “This picture doesn’t really do the spot justice. Just behind me are more milkweed plants and a whole field of vetch. There were tons (!) of bees, especially on the vetch.”
This is a great example of the “pockets” of bee habitat you can find scattered around the city. Gathering data from these types of places as well as gardens and parks contributes to understanding of the distribution of pollinator service in the five boroughs.
Send us a photo and information about where you go to observe bees, favorite places, interesting finds, tips, techniques, etc. We’d like to feature you!