My Garden of a Thousand Bees

Wild Films ~ My Garden of a Thousand Bees

Thursday, October 6, 2022 - 6:30pm to 7:30pm
  • Library Hall
Winner! Best Animal Behavior Film at the 2022 International Wildlife Film Festival .. plus the IWFF Best Short Film winner, too!

Locked down during the coronavirus pandemic, My Garden of a Thousand Bees follows acclaimed wildlife filmmaker Martin Dohrn as he sets out to record all the bee species in his tiny urban garden in Bristol, England. Filming with one-of-a-kind lenses he forged at his kitchen table, he catalogues more than 60 different species, from Britain’s largest bumblebees to scissor bees the size of a mosquito. Over long months, Dohrn observes how differences in behavior set different species apart. He eventually gets so close to the bees he can identify individuals by sight, documenting life at their level as we have never seen it before.

Viewers will marvel at moments timely captured in My Garden of a Thousand Bees, such as bees laying tiny eggs preparing for the next generation, green-fanged spiders feasting on male flower bees and a female yellow-faced bee attacking a Gasteruption wasp to protect her nest. Other fascinating behavior featured in the program includes two male bees fighting each other over a female, different species of bees competing over territory and one busy bee building a nest with a shell and hundreds of sticks. Intrigued by the intelligence of one particular wood-carving leafcutter bee, Dohrn dubs her “Nicky” and sees life at her level as she leaves a lasting legacy in the garden.

Bonus Screening! Winner! Best Short at the 2022 International Wildlife Film Festival!

Deveaux Bank: Reflections of a Cultural Ornithologist

In May 2019, a biologist with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources made a monumental discovery: 20,000 Whimbrel (a threatened and rapidly declining migratory shorebird) roosting together in a single flock on Deveaux Bank: a treeless sandbar 20 miles south of Charleston. This spectacle—a flock representing half of the species’ entire Atlantic Flyway population—was hiding in plain sight, gathered each night during Spring migration. Dr. J. Drew Lanham gives his perspective on this monumental discovery.

IWFF2022

WILD FILMS AT THE LIBRARY is a free series of award-winning international wildlife films selected from the International Wildlife Film Festival. The International Wildlife Film Festival was established in 1977 in Missoula, Montana with a mission to promote awareness, knowledge and understanding of wildlife, habitat, people and nature through excellence in film, television and other media.