Thursday, October 1, 2026
A friend who describes herself as a “bumble bee nerd” was excited. “Last night,” she reports, “I was perusing the Thurston iNaturalist page and was astonished to see photos of a Western bumble bee taken on Wiggins Road in Olympia. There have been some iNaturalist sightings of this bee elsewhere in western WA , most notably around the Olympics, but the map for Thurston County had zero postings. Until now.” She wondered “how this bee could show up in the middle of an area where it hasn't been seen for decades?”
She continued, “Anyway, now that it's been seen here, you might keep an eye out for this species. It has a white tail. Not yellow, not cream colored but pure white. This BB used to be common throughout its range until an inadvertently introduced disease nearly wiped the species out.”
My friend looks at the Thurston iNaturalist page every day. I didn’t know there was one.
iNaturalist is a national nonprofit organization that describes itself as “an online social network of people sharing biodiversity information to help each other learn about nature.” The New York Times reports that it’s become much more than that. Ordinary people’s reporting about the plants, animals and other living things they see and photograph is also used and valued by scientists.
iNaturalist also offers a free plant and animal identification app called Seek.
Many U. S. states have iNaturalist-affiliated Master Naturalist Programs. An Olympia resident, who’s a recent migrant from Arkansas, proudly reports that she is a Certified Master Naturalist, having completed a 40-hour course and related volunteer work in that state. She was quite surprised to find that nature-loving Washington doesn’t have such a program.
Many other states have Master Naturalist programs with even higher educational and volunteer requirements for certification.
There are lots of contradictory definitions of naturalists. One asserts that naturalists believe “that nature is the ultimate reality and that all phenomena can be explained by natural causes, rejecting supernatural explanations.” By that definition, if you’re not an atheist, you’re disqualified from calling yourself a naturalist.
But other definitions include “religious naturalists,” who experience a profound sense of wonder, gratitude and awareness of the beauty and miracles of all life.
Beyond the people grounded in religion or philosophy, there are legions of practical, professional naturalists. They include botanists or biologists and the science-adjacent people who work for or with them in parks, forests, and natural resource agencies and nonprofits. For them, being a naturalist is about knowledge, skills and experience. Close observation of nature — usually involving research and/or management of plants, animals and every other living thing — is their bread and butter.
Then there are the rest of us: the vegetable gardeners, flower-lovers, bonsai cultivators, the people who love trees and work to defend them, the bird watchers, the members of garden clubs, the visitors to public gardens and arboretums, and all the walkers and hikers. And people who just like to smell the roses.
Can we call ourselves naturalists?
Well, the word hasn’t been banned, so yes we can.
It’s a word that’s probably too big for most of us, but if we keep learning, we can grow into it.
The core of the naturalist’s skill is noticing — looking, listening, observing, remembering — sometimes smelling and tasting, too. You might think that would be easy, but it’s not easy for everyone.
Some of us — I’m raising my hand — are slow learners.
In my front yard, for instance, there’s a Seven Son tree, in bloom now. One day a friend and I stood beside it for just a few minutes and counted five different kinds of bees. I still can’t reliably identify or name more than two of them. But if I saw a bumble bee with a white behind, I’d remember that one.
If there were a local class to qualify people to become Certified Master Naturalists, I’d hope for a teacher who gave extra credit to students who tried hard, loved the subject, and cared deeply about the future of the natural world. Most of us could pass that class.
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RondaLarsonKramer
Wikipedia says of the western bumble bee that its decline is due to humans shipping it to Europe and back, exposing it to a parasite it has no resistance to. Such a bad idea. If only we could go back in time: "Between 1992 and 1994, B. occidentalis and B. impatiens were commercially reared for crop pollination, shipped to European rearing facilities and then shipped back.[3] Bumble bee expert Robbin Thorp has hypothesized that their decline is in part due to a disease acquired from a European bee while being reared in the same facility.[3] North American bumble bees would have had no prior resistance to this pathogen. Upon returning to North America, affected bumble bees interacted and spread the disease to wild populations.[3] B. occidentalis and B. franklini were affected in the western United States.[8] B. affinis and B. terricola were affected in the eastern United States.[8] All four species' populations have been declining since the 1990s."
Saturday, August 16, 2025 Report this
Boatyarddog
That is a Honey Bee, not a bumblebee.
Here's the Differences.
Honey bees are smaller, slender, less fuzzy bees with smooth abdomens, while bumblebees are larger, rounder, and more densely fuzzy. Honey bees live in large, permanent colonies in above-ground structures, producing more honey, whereas bumblebee colonies are smaller, short-lived, and typically nest underground. Key to their identity, honey bees have a distinctive heart-shaped face, while bumblebees have a more general bee head shape. [1, 2, 3]
Appearance
• Honey Bees:
• Body: Smaller, slender, with a relatively smooth, less fuzzy body. [1]
• Abdomen: Elongated and tapered. [1]
• Face: Distinctively heart-shaped. [3]
• Bumblebees:
• Body: Larger, plumper, and covered in dense, soft hair (pile), giving a fuzzy appearance. [1, 4]
• Abdomen: More rounded and bulbous. [1]
• Face: More general in shape compared to the distinct heart shape of a honey bee. [3]
Nests and Colonies [1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]
• Honey Bees:
• Habitat: Live in large colonies in above-ground structures like tree hollows, cliffs, or man-made hives.
• Colony Size: Consist of thousands of individuals and are year-round.
• Nest Structure: Build intricate nests with perfectly hexagonal wax cells for storing honey and raising young.
• Bumblebees:
• Habitat: Most often nest underground or at ground level.
• Colony Size: Live in smaller, annual colonies that don't last through winter.
• Nest Structure: Nests are less organized, appearing messier with "wax pots" for storing nectar and wax brood cells.
Behavior and Pollination [1, 13]
• Honey Bees:
• Flight: Tend to fly directly and swiftly.
• Pollination: While important pollinators, their ability is limited compared to bumblebees in some plants, such as tomatoes.
• Bumblebees:
• Flight: Exhibit a more erratic, zigzagging flight pattern.
• Pollination: Highly effective pollinators, particularly known for their ability to pollinate crops like tomatoes, pumpkins, and blueberries, which honey bees do poorly.
Origin [13, 14, 15]
• Honey Bees: Not native to North America; they were introduced by European settlers.
• Bumblebees: Are a native North American species.
AI responses may include mistakes.
[1] https://www.suburbanexterminating.com/bees-wasps-exterminators/honey-bees-vs-bumblebees/[2] https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-difference-between-a-bumble-bee-and-a-honey-bee-in-their-habitats-and-life-styles[3] https://pollinators.wisc.edu/bee-identification/honey-bee/[4] https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/blog/bumblebee-fact-sheet/[5] https://www.quora.com/Are-bumble-bees-the-same-thing-as-normal-honey-bees[6] https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/learn-about-bumblebees/beginners/bumblebee-nests/[7] https://www.accuratepestcontrolny.com/honeybees-wasps-and-yellow-jacketsknow-the-difference[8] https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/flight-of-the-bumblebee/[9] https://www.threeriversparks.org/blog/honeybees-bumblebees-and-case-collapsing-hive[10] https://www.dbka.org.uk/?page_id=133[11] https://beespotter.org/topics/social/[12] http://www.helpabee.org/urban-bee-legends.html[13] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEJRQMw4AH0[14] https://booksandwillows.com/honey-bee-vs-bumble-bee-top-5-differences/[15] https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/the-beauty-and-benefits-of-bees-and-other-pollinators
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Friday, August 22, 2025 Report this