Pollinators are constantly moving through gardens, roadsides, parks, fields and wild places — but most of us rarely stop long enough to notice them.
The Pollinator Kit gives you a reason to head outside, find a flowering site and begin watching.
Register your site. Map the flowering areas. Record the visitors you see. Compare busy and quiet locations. Return at different times of day and discover how the traffic changes.
You may find bumblebees, tiny native bees, hoverflies, butterflies, moths, wasps, beetles and many other visitors moving through the same site.
You do not need to know every species before you begin.
Start with what you can see.
• 12-page Pollinator Investigation Field Guide
• 50-page permanent Pollinator Field Record Book
• Common Pollinators Quick Reference Sheet
• 12 Pollinator Site Investigation Certificates
• Field compass
• Portable carrying case
• 10× folding field hand lens
• Pencil
• Pencil sharpener
• 30 cm / 12 in field ruler
• Measuring tape
1 Pollinator Site Register
12 Pollinator Site Surveys
12 Pollinator Site Maps
12 Flower Patch, Visitor & Activity Records
12 Pollinator Site Return Records — 3 return visits per site
Your investigation can begin almost anywhere flowers are growing.
A pollinator site might be:
The site does not need to be neat or carefully planted.
Wild sites are often especially interesting because different flowers, insects and habitats overlap in the same area.
Begin by getting to know the whole area.
Mark important flowering patches, individual plants, shrubs, paths, trees, sheltered areas, water sources and other features.
You can give different parts of the site their own field names to make them easier to study.
One area may become The Canteen because it receives constant visitors. Another may be almost empty in the morning but suddenly become busy later in the day.
Over time, your map becomes a picture of how pollinators are using the site.
Choose an observation area and watch carefully.
Who arrives?
Which flowers do they choose?
How long do they stay?
Do they visit several flowers before leaving?
Are some parts of the site much busier than others?
Record bees, hoverflies, butterflies, wasps, beetles and other insects during timed observation periods and compare your results.
A quiet survey is still a result.
You may discover that a site with almost no activity early in the morning becomes full of visitors once the day warms.
Pollinator investigation begins with observation.
If you can identify a bumblebee, butterfly or hoverfly, record it.
If you cannot, describe what you saw.
Large or tiny. Fuzzy or smooth. Yellow, black, orange or metallic. Long-bodied or round. Fast-moving or slow.
Photographs and return visits may help you identify visitors later.
The important thing is to begin noticing who is there.
Flowering sites can attract an entire community of life.You may also notice spiders waiting among flowers, birds hunting insects, beetles crawling through plants, wasps searching for prey or other animals moving around the site.
These observations can be recorded as Other Wildlife while the main investigation remains focused on pollinators and flower visitors.
Pollinator sites change constantly.
Return later in the day.
Come back in a week.
Visit after different flowers have opened.
Compare sunny and cloudy conditions.
Watch what happens as spring becomes summer and summer moves toward autumn.
The visitors may change even when the location stays the same.
Below are real Pollinator Sites registered while developing and field-testing the Pollinator Kit.
Each site has its own flowers, visitors, activity patterns and discoveries.
Explore the sites, follow what has been observed and see how each one changes through the season.
Then find a Pollinator Site of your own.
Pollinator Site No. 11 • TBD
Pollinator Site No. 12 • TBD
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Golden Door is a thriving flowering site in New Germany, Nova Scotia, located near Ant Colony No. 1 — Old Stump Colony. Its dense golden blooms attract bees, wasps, flies, beetles, and other flower visitors, but the investigation does not end above the flowers. Beneath the foliage, the patch may also shelter spiders, slugs, snails, larvae, and many other crawling creatures.
The enormous patch can be divided into named study areas, including busy feeding places such as The Canteen, predator zones such as The Hunting Ground, and shaded areas hidden within The Undergrowth. Each district may support a different kind of activity, turning Golden Door into a miniature living city of visitors, residents, hunters, grazers, and unknown travellers.
Future visits will help identify the flowering plant, discover which creatures return regularly, compare the busiest and quietest areas, and search carefully for clues about where nearby bees and wasps may be living—without disturbing the site.
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Reading Corner is a small public reading and garden space built around the Lion Val’ Gardeners’ Book Nook, with nearby benches, parking, flowers, clover, lawn edges and a walking trail behind the site. Despite its modest size, the area supports a surprisingly varied community of flower visitors.
Early observations have included hoverflies, tiny flower beetles, bee-type visitors and a probable Blue Mud Dauber wasp, with activity spread across yellow flowers, white umbels and clover. Future visits will include sitting quietly with a book, completing timed visitor counts, comparing which flowers attract the most insects and watching for solitary wasps or other creatures using the surrounding vegetation.
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Flower Corridor is a long, flower-lined strip with exceptionally heavy insect activity. Flies were the most numerous visitors during the first survey, joined by bees, a dragonfly, grasshopper, a camouflaged green leafhopper or planthopper, and several other unidentified insects moving through the vegetation.
A nearby ant colony also appears to extend through much of the corridor, making this a particularly interesting place to study how flower visitors, predators, ground insects and resident species share the same narrow habitat. Future visits will compare busy and quiet sections, map ant activity, identify the mystery visitors and see how insect numbers change along the length of the corridor.
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