Week of July 26, 2026 – August 1, 2026
by David DuBois, Director of Stewardship
Central New York is not the place to go prospecting. None of the gold rushes that searched the rivers of the continent from North Carolina to the Yukon ever found significant quantities of the precious metals in the rocks of the region. But something precious abounds if you know where to look for it.
The first spot that jumps to mind may be the goldenrod, whose fall display is a characteristically a rich yellow, or maybe the goldfinch with its shining summer plumage. Hidden among the golds and yellows of the natural world are a bee every bit as beautiful as the other golden clad compatriots, the Black and Gold bumblebee.
The first thing you will notice when you first see Black and Gold bumblebee is its size. Its hulking frame and loud flying is comparable to a hummingbird or helicopter and can often be heard before being seen. Once you do see it, its dark wings and strongly contrasting bands of black, gold, black, gold, black, gold, black are stand out boldly from other bumblebees.
These bees are not all that easy to find here in Central New York and up until last week I would not have expected them in the fields of this preserve. These bees prefer more open habitat than the majority of our forested landscape, and despite a fair bit of searching I had not seen them on the property. Land use changes, introduced diseases, and pesticides have affected this species as well as many other of our native bumblebees leading to the widespread decline of many of these charismatic bees. Today Black and Golds are rare in the state. Interestingly they can be found locally in Syracuse where habitat gardens full of native plants have helped populations persist. Outside of the city they need similar things: native plants to feed on, spaces to build a nest, and habitats buffered from insecticide use and disease.
This year, however, the fields to the south of the interpretive center abound in bee balm, and the bee balm abounds with bumble bees. Among them are Black and Gold bumblebees collecting nectar and pollen from the abundance of flowers. Just 5 years ago those fields were a monoculture of corn. When Baltimore Woods acquired those fields we phased out corn and took on a project of restoring the site into a native grassland. We planted more than a hundred pounds of seed, among them was the bee balm that the Black and Gold bumblebees are currently using.
Finding this bee in abundance represents the ultimate goal of restoration, the transformation of a space into a functioning habitat that supports diversity and life beyond the planners expectations. It is amazing to see how much the site has changed in those few short years, and speculate what transformations the next 5 years will have. More than the goldenrod or goldfinch, bee or metal, watching a space grow to support life and beauty is the most precious thing in fields at Baltimore Woods.