Last year working for Audubon Rockies as a Seasonal Educator, I visited the second grade classrooms in Pagosa and taught students about insects in preparation for their visit to Four Mile Ranch for more in depth study. This year as the team of educators behind the program begins to think about making content virtual for the upcoming school year, I thought it would be a great opportunity to document a few of the critters around my home and some of the web resources I’ve found.

Community Naturalists

Did you know June is National Pollinators Month? Audubon Rockies Spring 2020 Community Naturalist Highlights features an in-depth article by our local Community Naturalist, Keith Bruno, about how to attract mason bees. Learn the difference between native bees and honeybees and watch as Keith shows you how to assemble your very own pollinator house. Read the full article here.

There are other ways you can play a role in your community as a citizen scientist. Here in the San Juans, Mountain Studies Institute has several projects you can participate in from weed mapping to big horn sheep monitoring.

Or visit iNaturalist, a joint initiative by the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society, where you can id plants and animals, record your observations, and share them with a global network of scientists and naturalists!

Insects Are Everywhere!

They really are—especially this time of year! I captured this little video of a giant bumblebee visiting one of the hanging baskets on my front porch. Then I wondered if I could identify what kind of bee it was? There’s a website for that…

In this 5 Facts About Bumble Bees article from the National Wildlife Federation, I discovered bumblebeewatch.org where you can upload a photo, id the species and have that verified by an expert. I haven’t done that yet, but I think I may have a Bombus fervidus.

Here’s a gallery of some of the insects I’ve recorded in my yard over the years. The robber fly with yellow jacket is the only one that’s not from my home, but landed on me during a camping trip on the Middle Fork of the Piedra. Click on the photos below to view them larger.

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Here’s an idea… Start a scavenger hunt! Try to find and document 3-5 insects in your yard or local park or open space. Don’t have a camera to record a photo? Take notes! Draw pictures! Then see if you can id or learn anything new about the insects you recorded using the internet or your local library to fuel your research. Try it again in another month or two. Did you see the same insects? Why or why not? Keep a journal and record the interesting critters you see around you. Get your friends involved, share and compare the insects you’ve recorded. It’s like Pokémon in real life. See how many insects you can observe and collect in your journal!

Who Can Be Found In My Habitat?

I was excited to stumble across the National Wildlife Federation’s website and learn that Ranger Rick is alive and well. It was like finding a long lost friend. Do you remember this raccoon character? I can remember reading Ranger Rick magazine as far back as second grade. It is probably one of the things that inspired my love for nature and wildlife. While it is a subscription based program, NWF’s site has free activities and resources and even more if your school is part of their Eco-Schools program. 

While I was looking for insect photos on my computer, I decided I could post photos of some of the other animals that I’ve seen at my house. Most of the photos I have are of birds because we have a wide variety and many frequent our feeders and birdbath. If you’re a birder, you can record your sightings on ebird.

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Some of the special new sightings we’ve seen this summer include an oriole and goldfinch, not to be confused with the grosbeaks or pine siskins. We have a lot of other birds, too that I haven’t taken photos of but can id such as towhees, jays, wrens and juncos. In my habitat, we have the neighborhood herd of mule deer who like to bed down on the hillside, red fox, rabbits, lizards and last year we spotted a gopher snake!

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Our Impact

You can’t study the natural world for very long before you realize the role we as humans play in the web of life. For instance, I just read this article in Scientific American about micro-plastics. Our decisions have a much greater impact than many of us understand. It can be a heavy subject; but with continued education and research, we can begin to make personal choices that better impact our environment.

Last summer I celebrated my 40th birthday by taking two weeks off to camp around southern Colorado. The joy of exploring the outdoors was overshadowed by people who left food waste in the campsites we visited. In one case, we gathered it all up and burned it in a campfire. In the other, we chose to bury it. If we’d had better resources, we would have packed it out. Not only does this show a blatant disregard for the value of food and thinking about the people that may come after you, but it is extremely dangerous for the local wildlife. If bears become habituated to finding human food, it’s only a matter of time before that bear will end up euthanized. Be Bear Aware.

Unfortunately, most people just don’t know any better. If you’d like to learn about the best ways to protect the outdoors and how to educate others, I’d like to introduce you to Leave No Trace principles. The LNT Center’s website also has an extensive library of activities and programs for young people to learn how to be responsible outdoor enthusiasts.

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I hope you’ve found some of these online resources helpful. Next time, I’ll plan to focus more on plants and maybe provide my signature stories and specimens that I share with the students at Four Mile Ranch. Until then, happy trails…