Geocaching for Rare Native Bees!

What if your next outdoor adventure was like geocaching—but instead of finding hidden containers, you found rare native bees?

The Northeast Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (NEAFWA) has identified several native bee species that are of regional conservation concern, and anyone can help document them.

Here's how the "game" works:

🎯 The cache: Find a blooming host plant.

🐝 The treasure: A rare or uncommon native bee visiting the flowers.

📍 The coordinates: Record the plant's location and photograph any bees you find.

📱 The logbook: Upload your observations to iNaturalist.

Many of these bees are specialists, visiting only certain flowers for pollen. Your mission is to search for blooming plants such as flowering raspberry, lupines, beardtongues, holly, maleberry, yellow wild indigo, bee balm, pickerelweed, loosestrife, goldenrods, asters, willows, and other native plants. Watch the flowers for about 10 minutes, photograph every bee you can, and upload your observations. Even common bees—or a survey where you don't find any bees—can provide valuable information.

You don't need to be an expert. The iNaturalist community helps identify both the plants and the insects, making this a fun community science project for everyone.

Like geocaching, this adventure may lead you to beautiful forests, wetlands, meadows, roadsides, and hidden natural places you might never have visited otherwise. Every blooming patch is a potential "cache," and every bee is an exciting discovery.

Whether you're a gardener, hiker, photographer, geocacher, birder, or simply enjoy exploring Vermont's outdoors, I'd love to have you join the search.

For the complete list of target plants, bloom times, bee species, survey protocol, and conservation information, visit my latest blog post: Help Survey N.E. Native Bees of Conservation Concern

Let's see how many of Vermont's remarkable native bees we can find together!

Remember, inverting (The Joy of Observing Invertebrates) is becoming the new birding!

Tell your friends, "There is a new fun game in town - Geocaching for Rare Bees!