How To Submit Your Data
All bumble bee and habitat data will be submitted to the community science website Bumble Bee Watch.
1. Keep track of the time you spend on this part, you will enter this as volunteer hours into Bumble Bee Watch.
2. Curate your photos. Decide which photos you are going to upload for each bee entered on your data sheet. Make sure they are clear and the lighting is good. You can submit up to 5 photos per bee, so choose the clearest, best lit photos if you took more than that. If you are unsure of the plant you caught the bee on and have a photo of that plant, upload that plant as one of your 5 photos.
3. Login to Bumble Bee Watch
4. Choose Record a Sighting, then click Bumble Bee Sighting (see images below for step-by-step guidelines)
5. Under Project select Minnesota Bumble Bee Atlas. Selecting this project will generate a section for you to enter your habitat assessment data.
6. Enter your location information.
RED - Above the map, search for the city nearest your survey area and then navigate directly on the map to find the precise area. Once you click on your survey area on the map, the latitude and longitude fields will automatically populate.
YELLOW - Enter in a Site Name of your choosing.
BLUE - Enter the accuracy; meaning how close to your actual survey location is the selected map point?
7. Enter details from the top of your bumble bee data sheet
RED - Survey Type, Collection Method, Size of Area
YELLOW - Number of surveyors and time spent surveying
BLUE - Weather information
8. Enter Habitat Assessment Information
RED - Habitat type of survey area
YELLOW - Top 3 habitat types of surrounding area (only 1 is required; third option will appear if you fill out the first two)
BLUE - Percent of flowering resources in area and nearby habitat features
Scroll down. For each of the eight management types, use the dropdown menu to select Yes, No, or Suspect.
2. Next choose the species observed. Click the funnel icon to use filters if you need help selecting the species.
3. Click the plus sign to add a sighting
4. Enter all necessary information as seen in the labeled image:
Touch here to select a location on the map
Touch here to select the accuracy of the map pin (values are in meters)
Change the date and time
Add any observation notes
Add the floral host
Add up to 3 photos of the bumble bee - if you have fewer than 3 photos of the bumble bee, include a photo of the floral host.
Touch to submit
Other Questions? Contact us!
Mailing in Datasheets
We greatly prefer that you try to submit your data online. Similar research projects have found that this ultimately increases accuracy, and improves the quality of the information collected. We also understand that sometimes this is not possible, or there is something about your data that is unique and may not fit into the web-based forms that we've established. If you have questions about data entry, you may send them to mnbumblebee@umn.edu. If help just will not solve the problem, you may send in your datasheets in one of two ways.
You may scan them - or take a clear digital photo of them - and send them via email as an attachment to: mnbumblebee@umn.edu .
You may also send in paper copies of your data sheets. If you do this, please include your phone number and/or email address so that we can contact you with any questions about the information on your datasheets. Please make a copy of the datasheets in case they are lost in the mail. You can direct all postal mail to:
Elaine Evans
219 Hodson Hall
1980 Folwell Ave
Saint Paul MN 55108