Project Guide

Welcome to North Park Pollinator Watch! This guide will give you everything you need to get started on observing and uploading as a Pollinator Watch volunteer.

Project Goals

NP Pollinator Watch is a community science project run by the Latodami Nature Center to crowd-source documentation of North Park’s diversity of pollinators and the plants they are helping to pollinate. This project will help us understand what species are in the park, and which are most prevalent, as well as create a record of the plants they are visiting most or least as individual species and overall. As is a shared goal of iNaturalist, this data will be available for use by researchers worldwide and any interested park goers or community members.

We plan on using the information gathered from this project to help guide ourselves as well as other parks and county staff in making informed decisions on future habitat maintenance and restoration including future plantings by seed and/or live plantings. Some of the specific ways we are using this as guidance on are as follows:

Assuring pollinator friendly successional blooms from late winter through late fall throughout the park.
Providing both pollinator favorites as well as specialist plants throughout the park where lacking, such as areas with low plant diversity.
Locating areas or individual plants for seed collection to supplement other areas of the park with plants hardy to our local biome.
Recognising target plants and habitats in need of protection or removal during routine maintenance and restoration practices.
Creation of materials and signage for environmental education and promotion of healthy habitats.

What is a Pollinator?

For the purposes of this project, a pollinator is any animal that is visiting a flower for any reason with the potential to move its pollen to assist in the act of pollination.

There is a great diversity of pollinators in the wild including (but not limited to) hummingbirds, bees, flies, bats, mice, butterflies, wasps, squirrels, beetles, and mosquitoes.

Not all pollinators are equal in terms of pollen carrying efficiency or capacity to carry pollen great distances, but all pollinators are important and helpful! Some, like many bees, may have evolved specifically to carry pollen for pollination. Others may pollinate accidentally while drinking nectar, seeking mates, hunting, gathering food or nesting material, or even just passing by or taking a quick rest.

Park Rules and Etiquette

Please help keep our trails, habitats, and wildlife healthy by following all park rules and regulations and practicing good trail etiquette.

Take care when observing to not trample wildlife. Sometimes trampling is unavoidable in overgrown areas, but stick to trails and keep an eye on the ground for critters and sprouts.
Picking, collecting, disturbing, and defacing of plants, animals, and other natural features is prohibited in the park.

Project Requirements

Observation requirements for this project are already in the project rules, but for reiteration and to have everything in one place, they are as follows:

Must be "wild"
Must be in taxa "Animalia" (Animals)
Must have a photo
Must be observed within North Park, PA, US
Must be "verifiable"
Must have the observation field 'Name of Associated Plant" filled out
Observer must allow project curators to view coordinates.

While having your observation’s geoprivacy set to “open” is not a requirement, it is much preferred so we can quickly view observation locations. Please set your project setting to “allow the curator to see coordinates” if you are going to obscure/hide observation locations.

Observation Procedures - How to "Watch"

Purposeful Outings: The best way to watch! Pick a meadow, section of meadow, or even an individual flower or patch of flowers, and watch! Go slow and see who all visits as you observe. Try to observe for at least 10 minutes.

Casual Sightings: Upload any pollinator observations from your time in the park as long as they fit the project requirements. Or stop at a flower for a moment on your non-NPPW hike to take some randomized observations.

What makes a good observation?

NP Pollinator Watch volunteers should be purposeful in their observations to get the most useful data. Try to photograph every pollinator you see, not just the “pretty” ones or your favorites. Monarchs are plenty welcome as observations, but they are far from our only pollinators!
Pollinators should be photographed in the act of potential pollination when possible, (trust me, it helps you remember what flower it was on!) but if you spook it off and have to follow it elsewhere to takes pictures, just make sure to note what flower(s) you originally spotted it on. The flower species you found your pollinator on should be documented as the “Name of Associated Plant”. Learn more about that in the “Help!” section below.
Upload multiple pictures of the subject. Photos of the top and side are great, but adding photos of the face, underside, wing veins, legs, or other parts really helps both iNaturalist identifiers and yourself figure out what you’re looking at. If you really want to make sure your observations are identifiable, research some target species to find out what you need to photograph.
While any observation is a good observation, clear, close photos make things a whole lot easier to identify. Practice creeping up slowly on butterflies to get good shots, and don’t forget to get them in focus!

Want some pointers on making good observations and taking clear photos? Check out this slideshow for some tips.

Help!

New to iNaturalist? Check out their handy Getting Started guide.

How to Add Observations to This Project

From the iNaturalist app (coming soon!)
From desktop or laptop computers(browser) (coming soon!)

What is “Name of Associated Plant”?

As a requirement for this project, “Name of Associated Plant” must be filled out under iNaturalist’s “Observation Field” feature. In the case of this project, the “associated plant” is the plant that the observed pollinator is potentially pollinating. The flower doesn’t have to be visible in the photo itself, just observed in situ. If you had to chase your subject off the flower itself to take a photo, just make a mental note of what flower it was on. If you observed an individual pollinator visiting multiple flower species, consider adding additional observation fields. Learn more about that in this slideshow on How to Add Additional Observation Fields (coming soon!)

Where should I watch? (+maps)

You can watch for pollinators at any flower, anywhere in North Park, be it a meadow, garden, or lonesome flower. Don’t forget there’s flowers in the woods and on trees, lawns, and road and water edges!
Check the maps linked here for some of our favorite meadows, gardens, and no-mow areas.