Join the Anne Arundel County Bird Club for their monthly meeting at
Quiet Waters Park, Blue Heron Center, Annapolis

Native Bee Attitudes: Integrating them back into our Yards
Speaker: Sam Droege

AABC is privileged to host Sam Droege, truly on of the most accomplished, imaginative and influential wildlife biologists of our time. From USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Sam has coordinated the North American Breeding Bird Survey Program. He developed these nationwide wildlife monitoring programs: the North American Amphibian Monitoring Program, BioBlitz, Cricket Crawl, and FrogwatchUSA. Sam is a prolific researcher on multiple topics, a preeminent expert on wild bees, and co-author (with Laurence Packer) of Bees: An Up-Close Look at Pollinators Around the World (available for sale at the lecture). With stories of his extraordinary discoveries and his dazzling, ground-breaking macro-photographer, Sam will guide you into an astonishing world outside your door.

From Sam: “Our 400 plus Maryland species of indigenous bees are nothing like honey bees. No honey, no stinging (well almost no stinging), and no multi-year colonies. Did you know that they are already in your lawns and gardens and doing most of the pollination duties there? This talk explores the corners of this largely unknown universe where bees craft their favorite flowers and plants poison the competition; where 75% of all native plants depend on insects for ultimate survival; and where you can make a difference with simple things like growing native plants and maintaining permanent open meadowlands in parks, roadsides, and rights-of-way. Conservation of bees is not the conservation of our forefathers – preserving wolves and bison – it’s in the hands of local residents and their little quarter acre refuges.”