Contest runs from June 1 – September 30

Deadline: Monday, September 30 at 11:59 p.m.

What lives in my backyard?

The Friends of the Salmon River, Friends of the Napanee River and the Lennox & Addington Stewardship Council are launching a photo contest to encourage all – kids and adults – to get out there and have fun taking photos in our watersheds!  

Bumble bees are essential to our ecosystems and our diet! They pollinate many important food crops. 

Pick up your camera or phone and photograph this fascinating insect. To identify your bumble bees, simply access iNaturalist or Seek. Both apps are easy to use and Seek is particularly easy and fun for children. 

Each participant may enter photos of up to four different bumble bees. Please see our submission guidelines and note about bonus features below.

Prizes will be awarded for the most interesting photos. Winners can take home flowering plants that support our pollinators. Books about bees (and dragonflies, etc.) will be fun for kids.

Bumble bees are visible in the Salmon and Napanee watersheds area from March through November.  They build their nests underground or slightly above the ground.  

Bumble bees are fairly easy to photograph as they are quite slow and often return to the same plants many times. Close-up photos will be easiest to identify.

Use the macro feature and crop as needed, so the bee IS the photo. See our examples.

Safety: Bumble bees are less aggressive and less likely to sting than hornets and yellow jackets.  Please be very careful around bees so that their activities are not disturbed. The Queens especially need to be protected.

Bumble bees are known for the loud buzzing sound they make when they zoom by.  The genus Bombus, to which bumblebees belong, is Latin for “buzzing” or “deep roar.”  Bumble bees practice buzz pollination, using vibrations of their flight muscles to shake pollen from flower anthers. This makes them particularly effective pollinators of crops such as tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. 

To support their biology, leave areas of your yard un-mowed and add patches of rocks or bare soil, to attract them. Mint and legumes like clover species will support their need for nectar and pollen. Let Bull Thistles, Goldenrods, and Asters grow in the un-mowed area. They attract many pollinators, especially during late summer, when many native plants have finished flowering.

We strongly encourage participants to take 5 photographs with different views of the same bee: 1) one showing the whole body of the bee, 2) one showing the abdomen, 3) one showing the wing(s), 4) one showing the face, and 5) one showing the plant the bee is nectaring or foraging on. Without the different views, identification can be difficult and some bumble bees may not be identifiable. 

Bonus points will be given for:

1 – the different views of the bee and plant and 

2 – rare species

You can still enter images of up to four different bumble bees. By spreading it out over the four months of the contest, you may be able to photograph different species, since several of the rarer species have short flight times.