Ultra Green Sweat Bee on the apricot cosmos
For the first time ever, I spotted an Ultra Green Sweat Bee female Agapostemon texanus in the garden. From a distance she looked like a...
The honey bee and the California sunflower
The California sunflower plant that I bought from Oaktown Native Nursery last Fall is starting to produce blossoms. ...
The honey bee and the Agastache plant
Today I purchased yet another native plant for the backyard, an Agastache hybrid from the Sweetwater nursery. I had barely re-potted it...
more lovely flowers for the pollinators
Although it is almost mid-September, we still have some lovely flowers blooming for the pollinators. The fish and seaweed extract liquid...
the Lesser Goldfinches
Earlier this summer I started to hear a different kind of bird song, very sweet and cheerful. It turns out that we have Lesser...
Lots of food for the bees
This year, I think I've been better with providing food for our bee, butterfly and bird visitors in the backyard. To be sure that there...
Cuckoo bee!
This weekend I spotted this cuckoo bee, a female coelioxys on the naked buckwheat blossoms. These bees are natural enemies of other bee...
Carpenter bees are back
I haven't seen carpenter bees in the garden since early summer. And then yesterday afternoon I heard the distinct buzz of a larger,...
Tickseed aka coreopsis = more food for bees
I purchased a new plant for the backyard, tickseed aka coreopsis. It's still a small plant, but within a few hours I observed a hover fly...
Honey bee on the fennel flowers
Now that the swallowtail caterpillars have vacated the fennel plant to morph into chrysalises then butterflies, somewhere nearby in the...
