Newsfeed
The Bees of June
June 3, 2020As spring begins to fade into summer, bee diversity shifts. In fact, June is a slow month for northeastern bee diversity—most of the spring specialists have come and gone, many bumble bee queens are underground laying eggs, and a majority of workers won’t appear in significant numbers until the end of the month. Of course, there are still plenty of bees to find, and several genera appear for the first time in June.
Vermont Lady Beetle Atlas Finds Lost Species
June 2, 2020Over 100 Biologists and citizen scientists have photographed and reported more than 183 lady beetle observations representing perhaps a dozen species to the Vermont Lady Beetle Atlas just since its inception this spring, including one species that hasn’t been seen since 1976!
From Panama to the Arctic a New eButterfly is Here
May 21, 2020It’s been over a year in the making. We’re excited to announce a completely new and retooled eButterfly. Now you can track butterflies you’ve seen from Panama to the Caribbean and north to the far reaches of the arctic, covering over 3,000 species of butterflies.
VCE Kicks Off New Project with Backyard Lady Beetle Blitz in May
May 4, 2020Help us kick launch the Vermont Lady Beetle Atlas. From May 15th to 18th to participate in the Backyard Lady Beetle Blitz. Participating in the Backyard Lady Beetle Blitz is as easy as search, photograph, and upload!
Join the Vermont Spring Backyard BioBlitz on iNaturalist
April 17, 2020Discover the natural world right at home! Though we may be physically distanced this season, we’re still a united community of curious nature lovers and naturalists. From April 20th through May 20th, we invite you to join the Vermont Spring Backyard BioBlitz!
Rare Crested Caracara Visits Vermont
April 17, 2020On March 23, 2018 Mark Bessette surprised the Vermont iNaturalist community. Mark had snapped some photographs of an unusual-looking bird that he dubbed, “Elvis, the juvenile bald eagle.” The bird appeared to have a black wig that reminded Mark of the “King of Rock and Roll,” Elvis Presley. The iNaturalist community was quick to weigh in on the real identity of this bird. To seasoned birders, it easily stood out as a misplaced Crested Caracara.
Discover the Bees in Your Backyard this Spring
April 8, 2020Despite the human world grinding to a halt in the past month, spring is still on schedule. As evidence, two bee species were reported to the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist in March – Frigid Mining Bee (Andrena frigida) and Tricolored Bumble Bee (Bombus ternarius) – and many more will soon be flying! Spencer Hardy, VCE’s Vermont Wild Bee Survey Project Coordinator, shares a video from the field, and how you can get involved in the Vermont Wild Bee Survey.
Join Our Spring Wildflower Phenology Annotation Blitz!
April 3, 2020Long-term flowering records initiated by Henry David Thoreau in 1852 have been used in Massachusetts to monitor phenological changes. You can be like Thoreau right from home! There are thousands of images of plants that observers like you have added to the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist. But, they have not been annotated so that we can easily track phenology.
Vermont eBirders Gather Big Bird Data During County Quest
January 20, 2020From day one when eBirders reported an incredible 73 bird species on a cold winter day to a Say’s Phoebe, a rare visitor found in late November, Vermont birders scoured the state to discover as many bird species as possible during the 9th annual Vermont eBird County Quest, and set some records along the way.
Naturalist Help the Vermont Atlas of Life Build Biodiversity Big Data in 2019
January 2, 2020From the first observation of 2019, a Barred Owl sitting on a deck submitted by naturalist extraordinaire Roy Pilcher, to a Christmas Fern laying on snow shared by Bondaley on the last day of the year, naturalists added over 100,000 biodiversity records to our rapidly growing database of life in Vermont.
Vermont Wild Bee Survey Records Over 9,000 Bees in 2019
December 8, 2019The Vermont Wild Bee Survey reached a milestone when it processed the 7,680th and final bee specimen from our 2019 survey. In just one year, this citizen science effort has amassed the largest collection of bees ever assembled in Vermont.
A Lifetime of Beetles
December 1, 2019A lifetime of work on the ground beetles of Vermont and New Hampshire, Carabidae of Vermont and New Hampshire by Ross T. Bell, Professor Emeritus of the University of Vermont with species maps produced by the Vermont Atlas of Life at VCE, is now available as a PDF.
