Pollinator Pit Stops!

I can't think of a better way to end the week than with this book!

A Pathway for Pollinators 

by Michelle Schaub; illus. by Blanca Gómez 

40 pages; ages 4-8

Norton Young Readers, 2026

themes: ecology, pollinators, plants

Flitter.

Flutter.

Buzz.

Hum.

Come … watch a meadow thrum.

As cities grow, meadows go – where will the pollinators feed? In this book, children work together to create a chain of pollinator pitstops that connect the wild meadows beyond town limits to a city park. From rooftops and window boxes to patches of yard, they sow seeds of native plants that provide what the local insects, birds, and bats need.

What I like about this book: I love the lyrical language Michelle uses to bring us into the world of pollinator corridors. And the text reminds folks to be mindful about the ways we tend the plantings, by avoiding the use of chemicals that harm the pollinators. Back matter discusses why we need pollinators, why the pollinators need us, and the importance of choosing the right plants for a pollinator garden. There’s also a section about the importance of pathways as well as why we want to think about trees and shrubs as part of a pollinator pit stop. From the end pages through the pages, Blanca’s bright images invite us to explore the world of pollinators and their plants.

Beyond the Books:

Make a map of your neighborhood. Put in flowering trees that line the streets, and draw in where  people have planted flowers in gardens or window boxes. Is your neighborhood a good place for pollinators?

Create a pollinator pit stop. If you don’t have space in a yard, consider a 15-inch diameter container for a patio or balcony. Check out the lists of native plants for your region at XERCES 

Go pollinator-watching. You can watch bees or butterflies, hummingbirds, or even bats (in the evening). Keep a list of all the pollinators that live in and visit your neighborhood.

Michelle is a member of the STEAM Team Books group. You can find out more about her at her books at her website www.michelleschaub.com. You can find more about recently released STEM and STEAM books at www.steamteambooks.com

Today we’re joining Perfect Picture Book Friday. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copies provided by the publishers.

Pollinator Week ~ plant some flowers

 ... or let some wild flowers grow in your garden or yard. Often, nature will provide plenty of flowers - plants that most folks call "weeds" such as: henbit and deadnettle, mullein, ox-eye daisies, asters, goldenrod,  red clover, Queen Anne's lace, and black-eyed Susans. 

When I want to add color and height, I'll plant cosmos, coneflowers, calendula, bee balm (monarda), and zinnias. I'll let some of the oregano, thyme, and basil go to flower - the bees love them. And I usually plant sunflowers and marigolds just for fun.

The other thing a pollinator patch needs is water. I pour water in a shallow dish and put in some rocks to give insects a place to perch as they drink.

And if you're growing flowers to attract pollinators, ditch the pesticides and herbicides. 

Explore Outdoors ~ Flower Flies!

 Not everything stripy and buzzy flying in my garden is a bee! Some of the hardest working pollinators are flower flies! Some folks call them hoverflies because they hover over blossoms. According to one horticulture educator, hoverflies pollinate strawberries, apples, plums, pears, cherries, raspberries and blackberries. 

So how can you tell if that yellow-and-black buzzy insect is a fly or a bee? Get a close look.

Not THAT close! A couple hand-lengths away should allow you to observe them without making them nervous. Look at:

• their eyes. Flies have large eyes that meet at the top of their head. Bees and wasps have smaller eyes that sit on the side of their heads.
• their antennae: Flies have short, stubby antennae that sometimes look like tiny clubs. Bees and wasps have long, thin antennae that are made of segments.
• their wings. Flies have only one pair of wings and tend to hold them out to the side when on a flower. Bees and wasps have two pair and tend to fold them over their back when resting.

There are 6,000 kinds of flower flies around the world - what kind do you see on the flowers in your yard?

Pollinator Week ~ bumble bees!

Some of the easiest pollinators to catch "on the job" are bumble bees... they tend to stay focused on their work, and they don't get too bothered by people getting a close look at them.

If you're lucky to find a bumble bee humming about the flowers in your yard, take a few moments to observe them:

• what colors are they? (some have orange stripes!)
• what kinds - and colors - of flowers are they visiting?
• do different bees visit flowers in the morning vs afternoon?
• can you hear a difference in the sounds they make?
• after visiting a flower, what's the next flower they go to?

You can make a "bee map" of your yard by following a bumble bee when she's on a pollen-collecting trip (but don't get so close that you bother her). Use some bamboo skewers to mark the flowers she visits. Poke one into the ground next to each flower she visits. Then when she flies away, draw a map of her journey and color in the flowers. 

Welcome to Pollinator Week!

 

This week is Pollinator week! And this year’s theme is Life on a Leaf: Celebrating Caterpillars and Host Plants. The theme highlights the importance of lepidoptera in the United States – the nearly 11,000 species of moths and 750 species of butterflies that pollinate flowers – and the  plant species they depend on for breeding, feeding, and overwintering.

This year’s “Pollinator of the Year” is the Swallowtail Butterfly. There are some thirty species of the Swallowtail here in the U.S. and nearly 600 species around the world – here’s the one I commonly see in my garden. You can find swallowtails around gardens, lilac trees, and puddles - they love slurping up salts from the mud. 

Pollinator Week is also your chance to get involved in a community science project: Pollinator Bioblitz. All you have to do is sign in on your iNaturalist account and join the project. (If you don’t have an iNaturalist account, it’s pretty easy to set up.) Then, during pollinator week, take photos of the bees, wasps, butterflies, moths, hoverflies, hummingbirds, and bats you see flying around and landing on flowers.  

Plant some Flowers for Your Pollinators!

 

My Pollinator Garden: How I Plant for Bees, Butterflies, Beetles, and More (Books for a Better Earth) 

by Jordan Zwetchkenbaum; illus. by Kate Cosgrove 

40 pages; ages 3-6 

‎Holiday House, 2025

theme: garden, pollinators, ecology

My garden is full of flowers. I like the pretty colors. I like that they smell good.

Those lovely flower smells attract animals that take pollen from one plant to another, so the flowers can make seeds. And those animals, from bees to birds, butterflies to bats, are called pollinators.  Spread by spread readers learn how flowers attract pollinators and how different pollinators carry the pollen. At the same time, we are introduced to a diversity of native bees, butterflies, moths, hummingbirds and bats, flies, beetles, and wasps.

What I like about this book: It’s fun to look at the different pollinators and flowers on each page. There are short-tongued bees and long-tongued bees. Some bees shake the flowers to release the pollen. There’s a fun fact about each of the featured pollinators: what colors they see; whether they fly during the day or night; what attracts them to a particular flower. Back matter includes and author’s note, how to plant for pollinators, a short glossary, sources, and an index to pollinators and their plants.

Beyond the Books: 

Plant some pollinator flowers that are native to your region. You can find a list of plants for your region here at XERCES. If you don’t have a large space for a pollinator garden, plant a way station. A way station flower spot could be as big as the area inside a hula hoop or a few pots on the balcony.

Make sure to have a watering spot for your pollinators. I use a shallow dish with rocks in it. The rocks serve as landing islands once I pour in water. Make sure you keep it filled, especially on hot and sunny days. 

Today we’re joining Perfect Picture Book Friday. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copy provided by the publisher.

Keeping Count of Pollinators

 

The Great Pollinator Count (Community Science Counts!) 

by Susan Edwards Richmond; illus. by Stephanie Fizer Coleman 

32 pages; ages 4-8

Margaret Quinlin Books/Peachtree, 2025

One of the things I do every summer is count pollinators for the Great Sunflower Project, a community science project that I’ve been participating in since … oh, my - 2009! So I was really, really looking forward to Susan Richmond’s newest book about pollinator counts, and she doesn’t disappoint.

Mellie and her friends are part of a science club and they’re planning to count pollinators. The science club advisor, aptly named Ms. Bombus (awesome nod to buzzy sounds and bumblebees!) pairs Mellie with a kid who loves dinosaurs and hates stinging insects. As they count, readers are introduced to honeybees and small bees, carpenter bees and bumblebees, flies and wasps and even a hummingbird moth. Back matter highlights the insects in the book and lists the flowers in the school’s pollinator garden.

Back around Earth Day, Susan joined a bunch of us for “The Fifth Annual GROG Arthropod Roundtable” where we chatted about bugs we love (and those we don’t). She talked a bit about why she wrote The Great Pollinator Count.

“Young children are eager to explore their environment and are natural scientists,” she said, adding that many children (and adults) are afraid of bees and wasps. While respect and caution are a healthy response towards stinging insects, Susan wanted folks to appreciate all pollinators, not just the butterflies. A perfect reason for writing a book … but what’s the hook?

“When I learned that Georgia conducted an annual insect pollinator census, which includes schoolchildren, I knew this would be my gateway!” What better than a pollinator count! Pollinator counts are becoming more common, and what began as a Georgia community science project, The Great Southeast Pollinator Census has now expanded to include four more states: North and South Carolina, Florida, and Alabama. 

“May this notion of promoting a healthy pollinator population continue to grow!” Susan says.     

Pollinator Week Activity: visit a flowery meadow or a garden and count the pollinators you see in 10 minutes.

Susan is a member of #STEAMTeam2025. You can find out more about her at her website at www.susanedwardsrichmond.com  

Explore Outdoors ~ local pollinators

 This is Pollinator Week!  Pollinators, like people, come in all shapes and sizes. Those visiting my garden include bumblebees, carpenter bees, sweat bees and tons of other bees I don't have names for (yet), syrphid flies and other flies, wasps - from bald-faced hornets to paper wasps to tiny wasps, butterflies, skippers, hummingbird moths, beetles, and hummingbirds. I'm sure I've left some out. 

 

Here are a few  of the pollinators visiting my garden and the "weeds" along the road.

Who do you see pollinating your flowers?

 

 

Pollinators are Very Buzzy!

 

The Buzz on Wild Bees: The Little-Known Pollinators that Keep Our Planet Humming 

by Kira Vermond; illust. by June Steube

40 pages; ages 7-10

‎ Owlkids, 2025  

Do you know what bees look like? It’s OK if you don’t. There are more than 20,000 different species of bees on our planet, and most people can only identify a honeybee. This book introduces different kinds of wild bees: leafcutters, oil-collecting bees, cellophane bees, sweat bees and vulture bees and even bees that scrape the fuzz off plants and rolls it up like fluffy wool. It also shows the sorts of places wild bees live, and discusses why they’re so important to the other plants and animals in the environment (including humans).

But … wild bees are in danger and need our help. So this book shares a bunch of ways we can help them thrive, from planting native flowers to ditching pesticides. 

Pollinator Week Activity: Create a wild patch for wild bees! Get permission to let part of your yard go wild and weedy for a month (or the summer!). All you need to do is make sure no one mows that patch. Document the flowers and wild bees that you see in your wild flower patch. Ways to document: draw, paint, photograph, write notes about, write haiku or poetry.  

Welcome to Pollinator Week!

I’m celebrating pollinators all week with books and activities. Pollinators come in all shapes and sizes, from teensy bees to big flappy bats. One thing a lot of them have in common is wings, so I’m starting the week off with…

Wonder Wings: Guess Who’s Flying 

by Rebecca E. Hirsch; illus. by Sally Soweol Han 

40 pages; ages 4-8

‎Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2025   

Wings can soar and wings can skim…

Rhyming clues ask readers to guess whose wings these are. For example: wings that buzz and pollinate – and fly back to a hollow tree. Or what about wings that make a thrumming sound, that beat so fast all you can see is a blur? What about colorful wings that drift and float? Or wings that swoop through twilight sky?

Pollinator Week Activity: Make some wearable wings using recycled cardboard and markers, colored paper, and yarn or twine to attach them to your back. This video from the Smithsonian shows one way you can do it.

Celebrating Pollinators of the Gitxan Nation

When I talk about the bees and wasps and butterflies and beetles that pollinate the flowers in my garden and the surrounding meadows, I do so through a lens of western science. But that is only one way of observing the world we live in. So I was very happy to get this book in the mail a few weeks ago, as it reminded me that there are many ways to view the world around us.

The Bee Mother (series: Mothers of Xsan)

By Hetxw’ms Gyetxw (Brett D. Huson); illus. by Natasha Donovan

32 pages; ages 9-12

HighWater Press, 2024

It’s spring and bumble bee, yellowjacket, and honey bee are finding new homes. Bumble bee (Nox Ap) and yellow jacket because the newly emerged queens must start a new colony. Honey bee because her swarm has left an overcrowded hive.

So begins Hetxw’ms Gyetxw/Brett's picture book about these three different pollinators. Through the lens of Indigenous knowledge carrier, he shows the life cycles of these pollinators through the seasons. He also shows their role in the ecosystem and their connection with humans – sometimes as helper and sometimes (as when the wasps want bits of smoked salmon) as uninvited guests and downright annoying at times.

What I like about this book: I like the way the author integrates his language into the text, from the name of bumble bee to the names of the moons over the changing seasons. These names are explained within the main text. He uses text boxes to highlight facts and define words, such as “worker bees” or “pollinators.” A layer through the book shows how the Gitxan people live through the seasons in harmony with the bees.

There is also back matter: a brief introduction to the Gitxan Nation in the Northwest interior of British Columbia, Canada – and a map of the rivers. Brett also includes a list of the moons through the year, from Stories and Feasting Moon to Getting-used-to-cold moon.

The Bee Mother is the seventh book of the Mothers of Xsan series. Other books include The Raven Mother, The Frog Mother, and The Wolf Mother.  You can find out more about the author and his books at his website, https://thegitxsan.ca/

Thanks for dropping by today. On Monday we'll be hanging out at Marvelous Middle Grade Monday with other  bloggers. It's over at Greg Pattridge's blog, Always in the Middle, so hop over to see what other people are reading. Review copy provided by Deborah Sloan and Company.

Pollinators at Work

 

Explore Outdoors ~ Pollinator Scavenger Hunt

 

It's Pollinator Week so of course we're going to head out to look for some pollinators! How many of these can you find? Have Fun!

• a bumble bee
• a beetle on a flower
• a shiny green bee
• a fly that looks like a bee or wasp
• a hummingbird
• a moth that looks like a hummingbird
• an ant on a flower
• a bee with pollen on its body or face
• a fuzzy fly that looks like a bumble bee
• a wasp on a flower
• a butterfly on a flower
• a fuzzy beetle that looks like a bumble bee
  

Pollen-faces!

It's Pollinator Week!

 It's Pollinator Week! That means every day I'll have something fun on this blog. Tomorrow and Thursday it's a look at pollinators at work. On Wednesday there's a pollinator scavenger hunt, and on Friday a review of a special book about bees.

 

 Before the Seed: How Pollen Moves
by Susannah Buhrman-Deever; illus. by Gina Triplett & Matt Curtius
40 pages; ages 7-9
‎MIT Kids Press, 2024

 

 If you want to grow a flower - or a tomato - you need to plant a seed. But before you can have a seed, you've got to move pollen. And if you've ever seen a pollen grain, you know they're too tiny to pick up. So how does pollen get moved? By animals. From beetles to bees, from bats to birds and butterflies, pollen is on the move!

 

 

 The Mighty Pollinators
by Helen Frost; photographs by Rick Lieder
32 pages; ages 2-5
Candlewick, 2024

Meet the pollinators through playful poems and stunning photographs. There are bumble bees and honey bees that carry pollen back to their hive, and solitary bees that live alone. There are beautiful photos of flies and butterflies, bats and fireflies, and back matter that explains more about pollen and pollination. Want to observe pollinators in your garden or park? Just find a flower and stand a few feet away and watch. Once you're still, you'll notice the pollinators visiting the blooms. They are busy working, so if you don't bother them they won't bother you.

Want to learn more about these books and the authors? Head over to the GROG blog and check out my interview with Susannah and Helen at the GROG's Fourth Annual Arthropod Roundtable

More Activities for Pollinator Week

 One way to learn about pollinators and have some fun is to play BINGO. You can download a simple 3 x 3 BINGO card from Keller's Farmstand or, for older kids and adults, check out the 5 x 5 Pollinator BINGO card from Tufts University. Or go wild and create your own BINGO cards featuring pollinators from your area.

If BINGO's not your thing, create a scavenger hunt where people can check off what pollinators they find on an afternoon walk through a park or botanical garden. Or create a butterfly list and visit a butterfly house. 

Looking for more ideas? Click on the Pollinators tab above for links to activities and books - or click here to reach that page (if you're reading on mobile)

 

Whatever you do this weekend to celebrate pollinators, Have Fun!

Bees Lead Busy, Buzzy Lives

Since it is pollinator week, I'm featuring books that highlight pollinators. The themes of the day are: pollinators, insects, nature

Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera 

by Candace Fleming; illus by Eric Rohmann 

40 pages; ages 4 & up

‎Neal Porter Books, paperback edition, 2023

One summer morning deep in the nest, a brand-new honeybee squirms, pushes, chews through the wax cup of her solitary cell and into… a teeming, trembling flurry.

Hmmmmmmm!

This brand-new bee is welcomed into the colony with tongue-licks and antennae-touches and then set to work. Her first job: tidying the nursery. A few days later she is transferred to nanny duty, inspecting the larvae and feeding them. After a few days she moves on to other jobs until finally – finally! – it’s her turn to fly off to collect nectar.

What I like about this book: Candace Fleming does a lovely job shining a light on the life, and death, of a honeybee worker. Reading it, you can almost feel part of the hive. I like that she introduces the bee by her scientific name, Apis mellifera – Apis for short. And I love that every time she is ready for a new job, she wonders: flying? But no, not yet. And then, it is time to fly and we head out of the colony and into the fields with Apis, where we learn that collecting food for the hive is hard work. Back matter includes honeybee anatomy, more buzz about colony living, and how people can help honeybees. 

Bioblitz!: Counting Critters 

by Susan Edwards Richmond; illus. by Stephanie Fizer Coleman 

‎36 pages; ages 4-8

Peachtree, 2022 

A couple summers ago I participated in a Bioblitz at a local land trust preserve. It was in early June and I thought I’d be tallying insects. But it turned out that, due to the wet spring, there were fungi everywhere! Still, it was a great experience and so, when I saw this book I knew I’d want to read it.

Gabriel and his cousin, Ava head out to help count critters during a Bioblitz at a park. Ava loves birds – she was the character in Susan’s earlier book, Bird Count – and Gabriel is a bug aficionado. Over the course of the book, the kid (and other members of the Bioblitz team) visit different habitats and note what they find. Even though this book isn’t focused on pollinators, there is an excellent spread showing a butterfly garden and the birds, bees, butterflies and moths that pollinate the flowers.

What I like about this book: One thing I love about this book is that each spread features a Bioblitz list down the right-hand side, with numbers so you can find the critters in the illustration. There’s also a Bioblitz list at the back with critters sorted into groups: amphibians, birds, insects, etc. And back matter includes some of Gabriel’s “did you know?” facts (imagine a bug-loving kid jumping up and down saying “did you know…?)

Beyond the Books:

Go on a Pollinator Bioblitz. Choose an area – maybe your back yard or a botanical garden – and try to find as many pollinators as you can. Take photos of what you find, and make a Bioblitz list. 

Examine the flowers that your local pollinators are visiting. Use a hand lens or magnifying glass to get a close look at the inside of the flower (when a bee is not inside it!) – can you see the pollen? You can smear a bit on a white piece of paper to see what color it is.

Did you know that a honeybee worker only makes an average of 1/12 of a teaspoon in her lifetime? There are 21 and 1/3 tablespoons of honey in a pound, and it takes 3 teaspoons to make a tablespoon. Can you figure out how many bees it takes to make a pound of honey? You can find lots more honeybee facts at https://www.maine.gov/dacf/php/integrated_pest_management/school-ipm-curricula/elementary/documents/FunBeeFacts.pdf

We’ll join Perfect Picture Book Friday once they resume. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copies provided by the publishers.

You Can Help Pollinators!

 

Explore Outdoors ~ Go on a Bee Walk

 One of the best ways to get to know your local pollinators is to go outside and meet them. So today let's head out and meet some bees. 

First, a bit about what bees look like. They have three body parts (head, thorax, abdomen), long slender antennae, large multi-faceted eyes, two pair of wings (that's 4 wings in all!) and, if they're female, a stinger at the end of their abdomen. 

Chances are you're familiar with your neighborhood bumble bees and honey bees, and you may have met a few shiny metallic green sweat bees. For this bee walk, take a notebook and pencil - or a camera - so you can take notes, draw pictures, or take photos of bees you see along the way.

Things to observe on your bee walk:

• how big is your bee?
• what colors does it have on its abdomen?
• what is the pattern of the colors?
• does it have longer antennae than other bees?
• is its abdomen flattish?
• what sort of sound does it make?
• what flowers does it visit?
• also note the date, time of day, and basic weather observations

If you are looking for bee guides, you can find a short North American Bee Identification Guide (free) at Pollinator Partnership. They have some state guides as well. They have a longer Beginner Bee Field Guide available for free download as well.

Happy Bee watching!

Plant a Pollinator Patch

If you want pollinators visiting your pumpkins and strawberries, melons and cukes, then you'll want to make sure your garden is pollinator-friendly. The easiest way to do that is to plant a pollinator patch. You don't need much room - I plant a 3-foot by 3-foot section for the local bees and butterflies. And I've planted some flowers around the edge of the garden as well. But if space is limited, a 15-inch diameter container is perfect for a balcony. The trick is to plant a variety of flowers that will attract a diversity of pollinators. For example, some bees have short tongues and others have long tongues so they'll be looking for different flower shapes.

The best plants are varieties native to your area. You can find regional plant lists at the Xerces Society and the Pollinator Partnership.

Before I plant flower seeds, I check out what flowers the local pollinators are visiting. In my garden and yard, these are red clover, wild mustards, Queen Anne's lace, asters, milkweed, henbit and deadnettle (both in the genus Lamium), and goldenrod. They may look like “weeds”, but bees and butterflies love them. All I need to do is sprinkle some calendula seeds, maybe add a few bee balm plants, and toss in some cosmos and I've got a lazy-gardener's pollinator patch! I also let some of my herbs go to flower. Bees like to hang out on basil, and flower flies love corriander and dill.  

Pollinators need more than flowers, so I keep a shallow dish of water in my garden. I fill it with stones, so the bees and other visitors don't fall in, and put it in the shade of peppers or tomatoes.

There's one more, very important consideration for creating a safe place for pollinators in your garden: don't use pesticides.