Yellow-faced bumble bee moving pollen

Last weekend while I was checking out the native plants, something suddenly plopped down in front of me. It was this Yellow-Faced Bumble Bee Bombus vosnesenskii.

It was cleaning pollen off its face and moving the pollen to its baskets on its legs.

I was so happy to see the bee, because after having so many Yellow-Faced Bumble Bees visiting the garden all summer, I haven't seen any since earlier this month.

At first it didn't seem like it was moving, so I was afraid all was not well with the bee.

But on closer investigation I realized it was resting before moving pollen.

This process took at least five to ten minutes.

Then the bumble bee crawled a few inches to rest.

A wasp, seizing the opportunity, landed on the back of the bumble bee.

I was about to intervene, but didn't need to.

Like a shot, the bee immediately flew away, leaving the wasp on the ground.

Possibly the wasp intended to lay eggs inside the live bumblebee (horrible, but this does happen). I'm just happy the bumble bee reacted so quickly.