California Carpenter Bee visiting Coreopsis Grandiflora patch

I'm starting to see more carpenter bees visiting the garden.

This California Carpenter Bee female Xylocopa californica was very interested in the patch of Coreopsis Grandiflora flowers.

In the image above you see her approaching the Coreopsis Grandiflora Heliot flowers.

Her wings are beating so quickly that all you see is her shiny, stout body which seems to defy gravity.

Here she is collecting pollen and feeding on the nectar of one of the flowers.

Then she visited the neighboring plant, Coreopsis Grandiflora Sunburst.

The coreopsis plants bloom from mid-spring through summer.

I hope that with my diligent dead-heading these perennial non-native plants will bloom a few months longer, providing nourishment for bees and butterflies.