I just signed up for the Great Sunflower Project. Researchers are sending out sunflower seeds to people and asking them to grow them and then twice month to count the number of bees that visit the flowers in one 30 minute period.

It was much in the news last year that bee colonies were collapsing in rural areas -- some reports say as many as 35% of bee hives just vanished. The purpose of this project is to estimate the prevalence of bees in urban and suburban areas, about which much less is known.

It's a cool project, and I'm delighted to be participating in it. If you are interested, you have to sign up by June 15.