By Professor Hoot, Hilarious.news science and technology reporter
For fifteen minutes this weekend, a flowering plant at Ninety Six National Historic Site will receive the kind of attention normally reserved for a celebrity arriving at a very small awards show.
The site is hosting the Great Southeast Pollinator Census on Friday, August 21, and Saturday, August 22, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Visitors can pick up a clipboard, pencil, and counting sheet; choose a flowering plant; count its pollinator visitors for 15 minutes; and return the tally to the event tent. The National Park Service describes the free activity as family-friendly citizen science.
The census itself keeps the assignment admirably practical. Its organizers ask participants to watch one blooming plant, tally each insect visit into one of eight broad groups, and submit the count. No one needs to identify a species, which is a great relief to everyone who has ever looked at a bee and thought, with total confidence, “That is definitely an insect.”
The eight groups include bumble bees, carpenter bees, honey bees, small bees, wasps, flies, butterflies and moths, and other insects. The Great Southeast Pollinator Census says its 2026 count days are August 21 and 22 and that it is designed for participation in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi.
Professor Hoot’s field note: This is what I call a disciplined afternoon: choose one flower, remain in place, keep a tally, and allow the bumble bee to retain its privacy. The bee may be busy. The clipboard, for once, has a job it can explain at dinner.
Visitors can confirm the site-specific schedule through the National Park Service event listing and review the wider count instructions at the Great Southeast Pollinator Census.
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