http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-27764163 


Interesting article,  And many thanks for pointing it out.  Sometimes I
wonder if anyone is reading!

It's a great idea, using the population as research assistants.  There are
however in  my mind  two major POTENTIAL problems.

One is lack of historical reference. As you pointed out,  the presumption is
pollinators are in decline.  It does appear they are trying to prove their
point.  It would take a decade or better of researchers,  who are
consistent,  to show anything.  A season or two of enthusiastic spotters is
not valuable data for showing general populations.  Many reasons,  some will
fudge data,  some people are blind.  ( my wife never sees the deer in our
yard until I point them out) and of course how do you account for no
reporting??  Is that an actual absence of pollinators,  or an absence of
researchers actually looking?

The other is for an actual pollinator count, do we not need much more than
bees?  It seems that the anti neonics crowd is a bit off on data points.
What about butterflies, wasp,  and a dozen or so other species that act as
pollinators?  Around here Mason bees and mud daubers are huge factors.  Even
with 40 hives in my home yard,  my fruit trees are normally done by Masons.
My buckwheat is covered with other insects also.  Wouldn't these also need
to be considered?

It sounds a bit like a start,  but it also sounds a bit like looking for
things to prove your point,  not the facts.  I have no problem with the
idea,  but I would look very carefully at the reports from that data.

How does one account for data collection like that?  Some will spend hours
looking, others will do it once or twice?  How does a researcher account for
loss of enthusiasm in the data?  Seems to me its only valuable to find some
occurrences of populations you didn't know were there.

Charles

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