Sunday was a beautiful sunny day to go visit the Pollinator plot at the community garden. The chives have been flowering for some days, and I was looking forward to seeing the bees. Sure enough, the chives were hosting a bee party.
A honeybee came to play and several little pollen bees. There were shiny Halictus confusus, sweat bees with baskets of yellow pollen on their legs. There were even smaller little bees. And syrphid flies, Toxomerus marginatus, darting and hovering nearby. Sometimes I think I like the syrphids even more than bees, because you don’t expect flies to be useful, let alone beautiful. Hopefully the syrphids visited the other plots and laid some eggs that will hatch and seek out any foolish caterpillars that try to eat our vegetables.
Not only is the Pollinator plot off to a good start, there’s a bank of clover below the community garden and a bank of bladder campion above that should attract even more bees. Here’s to happy bees!
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