Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Our first guest blogger!

CAPS volunteer Norma M. was kind enough to write up her experiences with the collection for our blog. Thanks, Norma! Enjoy Norma's story and please be sure to send in your own thoughts and photos.

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From Norma:

I hadn't been in Chicago for Collection #1, so Collection #2 was my first time. I was worried because I would have to set the cups out in the side courtyard of a condo building, very shady, with lots of dogs....lots of possibilities for a complete flop. But have no fear! Not only did I find some bees in the cups the next morning, but the really cool thing was that my neighbors, both in my building and the building next to us on the other side, were so intrigued. People asked me about the multicolored cups, (thought it was an art project!), tried to keep their dogs away...so it was a positive community experience as well as a CAPS contribution. I'm hoping we have as good luck for the next collection.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

How'd It Go???

How did collection #2 go?

We had great weather at the end of last week - perfect for collecting bees! We hope you had some success with the collection this time around - especially after hearing from several of you that you were disappointed not to nab any bees during collection #1.

Please consider sending us some photos of your collection - we'd love to post them to the blog. Also, if there are some stories and anecdotes you'd like to share, send those, too! After all, this project is about sharing information as widely as possible. While we promise to do our part to share the research results with you, we hope you'll be willing to share with each other. If you don't have the time to send in a story or photo, consider adding a comment to the blog. Either way, let's hear from you!

To get the ball rolling, I heard from my parents in Rogers Park that they collected their first bees on Friday! Both bees were attracted to the blue cups. Here's a picture of Rogers Park bee #1:




















We hope you'll send us some more!

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Collection #2 > Th. 8/13 or Fr. 8/14

Hello all --

The weather for both tomorrow (August 13th) and Friday (August 14th)
is looking really great for bee collecting, so the second collection
will officially begin tomorrow. Feel free to perform the collection
on whichever of these days is most convenient. If either of these
days absolutely does not work for you, please collect on the next
sunny day (sunshine is also in the forecast for Saturday).

Remember that the bee bowls should be set out before 8am and collected
after 8pm on your chosen collection day, and that a data card should
be filled out for EACH collection (even though you filled out a card
for collection #1, please do so again for collection #2).

If any questions or concerns arise during this collection, do not
hesitate to contact us by e-mail
(chicagoareapollinatorstudy@gmail.com) or telephone (Cliff:
612.840.6333; Emi: 773.680.1205).

Thanks again to everyone for participating. Happy collecting!

- The [caps] Crew

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Thank You Ginkgo Gardens and News About Collection #2!

Ginkgo Gardens, one of the participants in CAPS, was kind enough to post some pictures of CAPS' own Cliff Shierk setting up a bee bowl grid on their grounds. Thanks G.G.! You can check out the post here.

In the meantime, we hope you're gearing up for collection number two. It looks right now like that collection will take place late next week, either Thursday August 13th or Friday August 14th. We'll be sure to keep you posted here on the blog, as well as through our google group. If you have any problems or questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

We can't wait for collection number two!