Protocols
What does a "Nest Quest" look like?
Volunteers will visit survey areas at parks around the Twin Cities to spend time searching for bumble bee nests and record data about the surrounding habitat. Surveys are one hour, every other week between late June and late August. Each time you visit your plot, you will conduct a slow, meandering walk looking for signs of bumble bees nesting. You can expect to dedicate anywhere between 6 and 15 hours of time on this project when you include drive time and data entry.
These surveys may be done at any time of day while the sun is out, but bumble bees are most active between 7 am and 7 pm.
Step 1: Sign up for your survey. You can sign up for a plot to survey and select survey dates on our form. By signing up, you are agreeing to visit your site biweekly to look for bumble bee nests and record habitat data between late June and late August. Other volunteers may be visiting your same plot. To coordinate, you will sign up for date for each survey (i.e. July 1, July 15, July 30, August 12, August 26) either in an early (7 a.m. to 1 p.m.) or late (1p.m. to 7 p.m.) slot. Your surveys can be done anytime between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. as long as there is no precipitation within 2 hours before or during you survey time. Visits can be on the same day of the week or not. Whatever is easiest for you. You will spend one hour looking for nests within that time slot.
Step 2: Prepare for your survey. You will need a cell phone or tablet for recording your data and location at your site, your volunteer badge, and appropriate footwear and clothing. Visit our Field Supplies page to learn more. You will need to download the ArcGIS Survey123 app from the Microsoft Store Apple Store or on Google Play and connect to the survey forms.
The map of the survey areas is linked to the Survey123 form, but you can also navigate to the site using this Google Map of survey areas and points on the trail closest to survey areas or print a map of your survey site.
Step 3: Go survey! When you arrive at your site, you should first enter survey information. This will be recorded into our SURVEY FORM (see instructions below). You will be recording date, time of arrival, number of surveyors, and basic weather information like temperature, cloud cover, wind speed, air quality index, etc.
We will track your location for the duration of your survey. We value your privacy. The only location data we will have access to is what is recorded while you are visiting your survey plot. This tracking information will enable us to keep track of the area that you covered during your survey.
You will also record the identity of the top ten blooming plants you see in your survey area. You can edit these data later by saving your survey in the Outbox and editing (see instructions below). See our Data Sheets page.
Conducting your survey with Survey123
1. Open Survey123. You do not need to create an account. Select "Continue without signing in"
2. Find the Nest quest survey by entering this link or scanning the QR code on your badge.
3. Select "Collect" to start your survey.
4. Enter the site name, time, etc, and then click on the image of a map to start collecting your track.
5. Before you start your survey, select the "Nest Quest survey area basemap" by pressing on image of the 4 squares on the sidebar on the right. It is the top icon on the sidebar. You should see a pink oval shape. Navigate until you are in that circle and then press the image in the lower left corner.
6. Start an hour-long timer outside of the Survey123 app. Select to track your path by clicking the image with the line and cross hatch mark near the bottom of the page. Your location will be recorded every few seconds. Slowly meander throughout the survey area from one edge of the survey area to the other including both wooded and open areas keeping an eye on the map to make sure that you stay within the pink circle. When your hour is up, click the line with the check mark in the lower right.
***If you are unable to record your track in Survey123, please record the latitude and longitude coordinates of your survey start and end points.***
7. After your survey time is up, go through the habitat questions. If you want to look up some plant names or have prefer to fill out a sheet and enter these data later, you can select "Save in Outbox".
8. When you are ready to edit your survey, you can select your survey to edit. When you are done, select "Send".
Step 4: Finding bumble bee nests. Slowly meander throughout the survey area from one edge of the survey area to the other including both wooded and open areas. Look for signs of bumble bee nesting: orientation flights (toilet bowl swirl pattern), bumble bees flying into holes in the ground, piles of grass, buzzing sounds from the ground.
If you discover a nest:
pause your survey timer. Sit near (~1 meter or 1 yard away from) the potential nest site to look for multiple bees flying in and out. You can stop watching once you have seen two workers or one queen with pollen flying in or out or 15-20 minutes have passed (not counted towards your one hour of nest searching)
If you have a confirmed nest, open the “Nest Discovery” form in Survey123. Record your site name and coordinates. Very important! Fill out the rest of the form.
Photograph the nest occupants and nest area.
Place two flags about 1 m (1 yard) away from the nest in a line that points towards the main nest entrance. Flags should be labeled “Nest Quest”. Mark the flag closer to the nest “Front” and the second flag ~30 cm (1 ft) away “Back”.
After completing the form, resume your timer and continue your survey until your timer hits one hour.
After your survey is complete and you have returned home: Upload your nest sighting to Bumble Bee Watch. The fields on Bumble Bee Watch will mostly match the Nest Discovery form. You can view your form to help fill out the Bumble Bee Watch form.
Alert nest quest staff!
Optional Step 5: Observe activity at discovered nests. We hope to collect weekly 20-minute observations of bees entering and exiting nests. Once a nest is discovered, we will share a schedule for observations. You can sign up for observation times regardless of whether you have discovered the nest or not. Use the Nest Traffic data collection sheet and entering the data using yet another Survey123 form for nest traffic. Learn more about nest monitoring here