2023 and Counting!

For the past four years I have participated in the Great Georgia Pollinator Census. This year it is expanded to include South Carolina and North Carolina and has been renamed the Great Southeast Pollinator Census. On the census website, you can read about the project, get tools for participating, and explore some of the data from the years 2019 through 2022.

Eastern tiger swallowtails on Eutrochium fistulosum

It is a fun citizen science project and takes as little as 15 minutes on either of this year’s days: Friday, August 18 and Saturday, August 19. I particularly have liked counting with children (including my grandson) and with people just starting to learn about pollinators.

You can read about my previous counts, such as the first one in 2019 during which I discovered a new (to me) pollinator, the beneficial elephant mosquito (and which I also found in the 2020 count).

My summaries of the 2021 count and the 2022 count are also available. If you read all four summaries you’ll see a repeat of some of the same native flowers that I use for counting. Since the pollinator census is always held around the same time period, it’s not surprising that the same plants would be blooming.

The purpose of the count is to raise awareness of pollinators (six categories of pollinators are counted) and to encourage people to use plants that support pollinators. My personal goal is to help people learn more about native plants for pollinators, including late-summer-blooming plants. Already in bloom at my house are the plants that I usually count on, including hollow Joe pye weed (Eutrochium fistulosum) which is so popular with our larger butterflies as well as bumble bees.

So, sharpen your pencils, read up on the guidelines, and get counting! If you need a place to count, many local community gardens are offering guided counts and beautiful flowers on which to count. If you see something unusual, snap a quick photo and get help figuring it out after the count.