Bye, columbine

The last of my columbines are still attracting bees (this one is a Lasioglossum), but they are fading and raising up fistfuls of seed pods. They’ll be back. They’ve come back and spread with glee, ever since I planted a few seeds years ago. All I remember of the variety is that supposedly the dark […]

Bees in the berries

The bees are busy in the berries. Lots of bumblebees rush from flower to flower in the raspberries. This one seems to be trying to choose between a berry in progress and a fresh flower. So many berries, so little time. And there’s other bees to compete with.

Bees in the buttercups

As spring warms up, the buttercups open, in dense patches of bright yellow flowers. The flowers have bright, glossy petals that can look almost white. Even when they’re not flowering, their leaves have an interesting mottley spottleness. That’s how you know these particular buttercups are Ranunculus repens. It’s not native here, but I like the […]

Bees in the strawberries

I’m seeing tiny bees everywhere, on the columbines, on the buttercups, on the strawberry flowers. Some are definitely bees when I look closer. One had long antennae and a striped abdomen. One was carrying bright yellow saddlebags of pollen. Some turn out to be flies or beetles or syrphid flies, but none of them stay […]

Three bees

I still have nothing more to say about the flowers from yesterday. I want to talk about the bees, starting with the cuckoo bee up to its neck in dandelion. Like the birds, they lay their eggs in other bees nests so carefully dug and provisioned in the ground. I’ve seen them before, tiny reddish […]

Cinco de flores

Flowers, flowers, flowers, flowers, flowers, What more is there to say?

Mining for miner bees

When I was digging up some of the swallow-wort yesterday, I got an unexpectedly close-up look at one of the little brown bees I’ve seen darting around down on the ground and up in the fruit trees. Plus this was near an area of ground that stays bare and hard, and in the summer I […]

Feasting bees

I’m not all that fond of the grape hyacinth. The color is nice, but plant one and the next thing you know, you have thousands. Not only do they flop over at the end of spring, but resprout in the fall with more messy leaves that flop over. On the plus side, the blue seas […]

The plums have bees, too

The plum tree is now covered in fluffy white blossoms, and surrounded by little bees zooming in and out. They don’t stop for long, quickly moving on to the next prospect. This one is a sweat bee of genus Lasioglossum, which I suppose doesn’t tell you (or me) much. They are native bees and this […]

A bee seeing you

It turns out one of the bees that has been cruising the yard has been cruising the yard looking for dates.