The week of June 17 will be “Pollinator Week” at the Woods Hole Public Library. A series of free events, both inside and outside will be held to celebrate pollinators and bring their plight to the public’s eye.
On Monday, June 17 at 7 PM a documentary about pollinators narrated by Meryl Streep will be shown. This film features extraordinary close-up photography of butterflies, bees, other pollinating insects, hummingbirds, bats, and flowers in a celebration of life. A third of the world’s food supply depends on these incredible and increasingly threatened creatures. The film-maker Louie Schwartzberg uses riveting high-speed, closer-than-close techniques to showcase in spectacular detail these unsung heroes of our planet. Appropriate for all ages. (80 minutes) (To hear the exact title of the film, call the Library)
On Wednesday, June 19 at 7:30 PM, local gardener and educator Josh Leveque will lead a workshop, “Simple and Attractive Ways to Welcome Pollinators to Your Yard”. Josh will share easy steps to enhance your home landscape for native bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and other pollinators in ways that are both low-maintenance and attractive. Small changes that provide host plants, nectar sources and habitat can make a big impact for local pollinators in any style of landscape.
On Saturday, June 22 at 3pm at the Woods Hole Public Library children’s room, local gardener, educator and dad, Josh Leveque will read a book, geared towards children ages 7-11, called “Flower Talk: How Plants Use Color to Communicate” by Sara Levine. Did you know that plants talk? They do! Plants use the colors of their flowers to communicate with pollinators. Why? Because pollinators help plants to make seeds by moving pollen from one flower to another. Josh will answer questions about plants and pollinators after the reading.
On Saturday, there will be a “Pollinator Morning” at Falmouth Academy from 9:30-noon, co-hosted by the Library. Larry Dapsis, entomologist from the Cape Cod Co-operative Extension will give an approximately 45 minute talk called “Pollination Ecology – How Can We Help Bees?” This program will review honey bee biology and the factors responsible for the catastrophic losses in honeybee populations, both locally and nationally. In addition, Larry will review the state of wild pollinators like bumble bees and suggest ways residents can help them.
At the end of the talk, Larry will introduce a new insect identification App called Bee Smart. The group will then proceed outside where, with the assistance of Josh Leveque, everyone will learn to identify some of the more common insect pollinators. This is seen as the first step of a citizen science project that involves learning about pollinators, learning some basic identification and attempting to inventory the insects that are visiting the pollinator gardens at Falmouth Academy. The ultimate goal of this project is to survey the insects every year, and compare the current year’s data with that of previous years.
In case of rain, the program will be held the following week, Saturday, June 29 at 9:30 AM.
T-Shirts have been made using art work by Woods Hole summer resident Barbara Whitehead to celebrate the Library’s favorite pollinator, the Monarch Butterfly. The T-shirts will be available for sale throughout the summer. Later in the summer, the Library will restart their Monarch Butterfly project in which they raise, tag and release butterflies. Over the past few years, the Library has released hundreds of monarchs. During the weeks of late summer and early autumn, the Library is a good place to view, up close, caterpillars and chrysalises of the Monarchs. In the children’s room insect enclosures will be set up, housing and displaying the Monarchs. Keeping a ready supply of fresh milkweed branches for the caterpillars will keep both the librarians and volunteer entomologist Becky Lash very busy.