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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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