The Fairhaven Pollinator Garden, planted at Fairhaven Senior Services just three months ago on May 17, was delighted to find that it recently hosted several rusty patched bumble bees, a critically endangered native bumble bee. 

A volunteer weeding the garden spotted the bees, took photos, and shared them with Wisconsin/Midwest Bumble Bee Observers, a Facebook group focused on identifying bumble bees.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/555238811914604

The group verified that it was rusty patched bumble bee, and the volunteer uploaded the photo to Bumble Bee Watch, a citizen science project and online platform designed to track, study, and conserve native bumblebee species across North America. 

The federally endangered Rusty Patched Bumble Bee is a vital keystone pollinator. It boosts ecosystems and human food supplies by pollinating native wildflowers and key commercial crops like cranberries, blueberries, apples, and tomatoes through a specialized “buzz pollination” technique.

Find out more about the rusty patched bumble bee!

https://xerces.org/endangered-species/species-profiles/at-risk-bumble-bees/rusty-patched-bumble-bee

Our thanks to Kristine Zaballos for sharing this photo and great news.

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