EYA Citizen Scientists at Moberly Arts and Cultural Centre

The women of CSI Moberly: Citizen Science Investigation at your service!

Erin graciously agreed to introduce students at Moberly Elementary to the world of bee biodiversity.

"Are these bees dead?"

"Well honey, they're not sleeping!"

Erin teaches grade three students how to get up close and personal with pinned bee specimens, respecting their fragility.

To see bees is to love bees.

Well, we have the remains of a June bug on the left and what I'm pretty sure is a European chafer beetle on the right.

Practicing TLC for the DPB (Dead Pinned Bee).

Meanwhile, in another part of the urban jungle . . .

A paper wasp munches on a juicy spider. . . or is it a harvestman, aka daddy longlegs?

 What we think is a common eastern bumblebee (Bombus impatiens) gathers pollen from California lilacs.

Compare the male Melissodes and its long antennae with the female below.

She's the one who wears the pollen pants in the family.

Female . . .

 and male.

Note that the tail from this swallowtail in missing. Perhaps chomped on by a bird?

Radishes at Moberly: A Spicy Juicy Snack

What a beautiful day for grade threes and their buddies to garden at Moberly! Yesterday was all about radishes, as one of the beds had become covered with volunteers from last year's radish pods. (Volunteers are seeds that sprout without being sown directly by a gardener.) If we had more beds I would have one just for radishes, because they would just grow and seed without any help. However, we want to plant a variety of veggies, herbs and flowers.

This is a large radish plant that grew in the path. We're leaving it to flower for the bees. We'll just work around it! The flowers are edible too!

These are the small radish greens. The heart-shaped leaves (cotyledons) are delicious!

Here's the patch with small and medium radish plants. The medium leaves are fuzzy and not palatable until they are cooked. In wartime, people made radish soup to make sure that none of the plant was wasted. It's called "nose to tail" eating: chowing down on the root, the leaves and the flowers. Just remember to leave plenty of flowers for the bees. And thank you to my "worker bees" from Moberly Elementary.

P.S. I saw a hummingbird at the garden feeding on the borage flowers! But in my garden at home they love the salmonberry blossoms above all.

Bee Sculptures from Recycled Materials

 Here's a sneak peak of a Madame Beespeaker ArtStarts residency at Moberly Elementary co-sponsored by Moberly Arts and Cultural Centre. Can you identify this bee?