Wool Carder Bees settled in for the summer

The wool carder bees Anthidium manicatum are back in full force, now that the lambs ears are blooming. Although they forage for nectar in our salvia and native lupines, they are constantly monitoring the lambs ears.

I think this one is is a male, because of the lighter face. It was resting for several minutes on the lambs ear before it was back in flight, chasing other bees away from the lambs ear blossoms.

It's so hard to photograph the females scraping fiber off the leaves for their nests, because they are very quick and generally scrape from the underside of the leaves.

Blooming lambs ears - bee El Dorado