Getting lucky with Woolcarder bees

The Woolcarder bees still like the snapdragons, but they seem to love a big clump of catnip nearby. Sometimes I see at least four or five at once, too fast and too many to subitize. I love watching the males hovering and darting here and there, making sure there’s plenty of sweet nectar for the […]

More coneflowers, more bees

More coneflowers have answered the first coneflower‘s call. This is one of the great bee flowers. My trinity of bees — honeybees, bumblebees, and Agapostemon — visit them, methodically going through the spikes of pollen in the centers. When the Halictus bees are done with the sunflowers, they’ll come to the coneflowers too. Together they […]

A buffet for bees in the catmint

The mound of catmint, Nepeta “Walker’s Low“, has bloomed all May and June, attracting an amazing array of bees.

Sunflower weather

Now that the heat has hit, I can barely keep up with the flowers. This sunflower bloomed a few days ago, and today already the flowerhead is busy making seeds. The bees have done their work. Traditional varieties of sunflowers are great bee flowers. They give so generously of their pollen, that bees get covered […]

But…that’s a Wool Carder

The Wool Carder is a little bee with an outsize dose of possessiveness. Almost every afternoon, I see one patrolling the snapdragons as if making sure no other bees try to get in. Then it climbs in for a snack and zooms away. They’re called Wool Carders because the female take the fuzz off fuzzy […]

Impatient bumblebee caught in the moment

After spending a little time every day of National Pollinator Week chasing bees, I finally caught some nice pictures of a Common Eastern bumblebee. It always amuses me to see these big, fat bees landing on such small flowers as this daisy fleabane. These bees have mass! I also think the Latin name, Bombus impatiens, […]

Hunting bumblebees in the raspberries

This is one of the uncommon bumblebees I’ve been seeing lemon yellow flashes of in the raspberries. I think it’s the Perplexing Bumblebee. Better look quick, there she goes!

More syrphid flies and the prettiest bee

Here’s some more syrphid flies that I’ve seen recently.

Carpenter bees

More bees. Here’s some carpenter bees big and small. Both kinds tunnel their nests into wood, but they’re two separate families. The last few years in the spring, a big fat male carpenter bee patrols the yard. He can be pretty intimidating, flying by, but he can’t sting you. Aside from the pure bluster, you […]

A raspberry and a blueberry from the bees

Today’s harvest was brought to you by the bees. Honeybees and small carpenter bees in the raspberries. Bumblebees, too, but they’re too fast for me to get a good picture. I caught a Lasioglossum bee in the flowerhead of one of the scallions I planted last fall. And the coriander flower is showing off one […]