Incidental Observations 

In addition to point and roadside surveys, incidental surveys can also help further our understanding of bumble bee distributions in the Nebraska. Incidental observations are simple sightings of bumble bees and can casually occur anywhere, any time, and do not have to be in your adopted grid cell. These surveys work great when you might be visiting an area where catching bumble bees is prohibited, such as National Parks. Now that you have caught the bumble-bee-watching bug, incidental surveys will naturally happen, say for example while walking your dog. You may observe bumble bees visiting flowers and decide to stop and take a picture. These observations will not take the place of formal surveys, but they will help fill in information gaps throughout the state.

In order for these observations to count towards the Atlas project, they must include a photograph. Photographs for incidental observations may be taken of the bee directly on a flower or using the protocol described in the point surveys. Only in-focus photographs that provide enough detail for identification purposes should be submitted. Including information or photographs of the associated plant is also useful. For helpful tips on photographing bees click here.

Try using the Bumble Bee Watch app for Apple or Android to make uploading incidental observations quick and easy! This app allows you to take photos of bumble bees, and directly submit the observation with an automatic time, date and location stamp. Once a photo is taken or uploaded to the app, it will assist you in identifying the bumble bee. This app is not recommended for use with formal Point or Roadside surveys. 

Considerations:

• Include only the best photos of each species. If you are not sure if photos are different species or not, enter them as different species.
• Include observations of the same species of bee visiting different species of flowers, as it is great information to have.
• Do your best to identify the species of flower that the bumble bee was visiting. Consider downloading the app iNaturalist to help you identify plants.
• Download the Bumble Bee Watch app to directly and easily enter your observations from your smartphone.
• Follow the same rules about location, private property, and general respect for others experience when collecting incidental observations.