Time for bees

A lot of folks, if they saw me wandering through our yard as much as I do, might say I have way too much time on my hands. As for me, I say I don't have ENOUGH! Because sometimes, waiting for nature to unfold requires a LOT of time...and patience. Take yesterday afternoon, for instance. I happened to be in the back yard with my camera, looking at plants, when I saw a bee dart into a hole. If you're the size of a bee, then this hole might be cave size. From this perspective, her hole looked like a cavern entrance on the side of a hill.

 See the hole? In the photo above, it's on the far right side, middle of the image. So I decided I'd wait and see if I could catch a picture of her. While I crouched on my haunches, I took some pictures of the...

...volunteer vine, likely in the morning glory family...

...the volunteer black-eyed susan, likely planted by a bird...

...and the healthy prairie verbena (I think that's right).

Meanwhile, I heard and barely saw a bee circle me at least twice. Then she landed on the dirt mound just out a bit from my elbow. "C'mon, you lost?" I said, "don't you know where your nest is?" Finally, I stood up to take a break, and she made a bee-line for a different hole! She'd been politely waiting for ME to move out of her way. In the photo above, her hole is just beneath the little white pebble. She's likely a different bee mom.

Here's another shot of her nest entrance. Alas, some rain started so I headed for the house. No more waiting on bee appearances the rest of the day.

 

This morning, I got a shot of her entrance. But no bee mom. (Yesterday heavy rains really brightened up our small crop of moss!)

Just awhile ago, I went back out with my camera and got a few shots of her working on her nest. I've seen her abdomen and her green eyes so I'm pretty sure she's a digger bee species of Anthophora. Nearly three years ago, I blogged about the same species–"Acrobatic bee!"–when I found one roosting in our globe mallow. They're cool.

Time permitting, I'll keep trying to get a better photo of her. Wish me luck!

Bee box continued

A big THANK YOU to Marilyn K., who left a comment on my previous post, "Bee box housekeeping." I'd given up on finding paper straws the right size to fit inside the box's tubes. Then she told me about using parchment paper. I didn't have any, but my neighbor, Marcella, did. And she gladly donated the end of a roll to the cause. (Thanks to you, too, Marcella!) What a great and easy idea! Took a little doing, cutting the paper to the right size and getting it to roll up tight enough to fit inside the tubes. Like Marilyn suggested, I used a pencil to start the rolling. Then I tightened the little straws up myself and slipped each one inside a tube. It worked! Plus, I have loads of parchment paper still left to use in the future. Maybe I'll get inspired and make more wooden bee boxes. In the meantime, I'm waiting to see if any solitary bees nest in the bamboo tubes I set out last week.

P.S. Because it was so helpful (and interesting) to me, here is Marilyn's comment in full:
 
"Thanks for reminding us that is time to invite bees to our property. Everyone needs to help them as much as possible because both honey bees and our native bee species are in serious decline. And since they are responsible for 1/3 of our food production, we really need their help.

I worked on a bee project and then a bee display last summer at Malheur NWR. I found that he most important thing you can do to prevent disease is to either make new houses every year, or use the paper straws. And you can actually pull the straws out in the fall and store them in another dark container with one exit hole - some people even store the in their refrigerators. Sometimes it takes 2 years for all the bees to hatch out.

Making the straws is easy - just wrap parchment paper - the kind you buy to bake with - around a pencil. Then stick the straw in the bee tunnel and let it expand to fit. If you drill the holes all the way through the bee block, you can make the straws an inch or two longer than the tunnel, fold them down and screw on a thing piece of wood to close off the back.

Another interesting thing I learned is that the bee lays female eggs in the back of the tunnel and male bees toward the front. So the males are sacrificed to feed the birds. The longer the tube, the more females you'll end up with."

Bee box housekeeping

Finally, after much procrastination, I took down the bee box I made in 2009 and cleaned it up. Well, actually, all I did was pull out the plastic straws I'd inserted and cleaned out the tubes. I bought some paper straws, as recommended by a bee expert Michael Warriner. But they're much too small in diameter. Darn it. So I'm going to leave the tubes as they are...a la natural.

Anybody need a box of paper straws made of birch? Or maybe I can use them for something else....

Bee box experiment

 I've read about and seen nest boxes for solitary bees on the Internet made from bamboo tubes. Since we have an ample supply of the invasive species in town, I decided to try making a couple. First, I stopped by the convenience store where they grow and asked permission to cut some. Go ahead, the guy said. Then I broke off an armful of dead bamboo and loaded the stuff into my car's trunk.

 At home, I cut the shoots below the node as directed.

That way, you make a tube with one close end...

...and the other open so the bees can nest inside. I wasn't very careful about choosing the sizes of tube opening. After all, this is an experiment. If I see that the bees like my two boxes, then I'll make more.

Now bundling the tubes together was a challenge. I wasn't finicky about the lengths either (some were much shorter than others). I finally decided to use rubber bands initially, then I secured them with string.

Since this is just an experiment, I decided to tie the two bundles to the cedar fence in the Meadow. Bee nest boxes should always face south or southeast to get the morning light. At least, that's what I read. So we'll see what happens next! 

Great day to be a bee!

It was a challenge, but I snagged a few photos of this busy guy (Anthophora sp.), gathering pollen among the salvias.

 

Plants for Pollinators

Like usual, I research one topic, and I'm drawn to another. Michael Warriner wrote a great piece, "Native bees in Texas," that's posted on the Native Plant Society of Texas website. 

Toward the article's end, he writes, "A great online tool for determining which native plant species are best for your ecoregion of Texas can be found on The Pollinator Partnership’s website. Simply type in your zip code and you will be directed to a downloadable ecoregional-specific planting guide."

Okay, so Sheryl stops and types in her zip code....

Then she learns that her Wildscape falls within the "Southwest Plateau and Plains Dry Steppe and Shrub Province." 

Another click, and Sheryl gets a PDF of "Selecting Plants for Pollinators: A Regional Guide for Farmers, Land Managers, and Gardeners in the Southwest Plateau Dry Steppe and Shrub Province (including parts of New Mexico and Texas)." 

Cool! On her tablet, she saves the PDF in iBooks so she'll have it for future reference. 

Now back to work. Right? 

P.S. Check out the FREE app, BeeSmart Pollinator Gardener.  

Bee boxes, houses and other nesting quarters

Wow. I thought I was doing well when I made one simple bee box a few years ago. This morning, I'm researching the topic online and have found AMAZING bee nurseries. For instance, check out Bee Houses Around the World at Resonating Bodies blog and see an awesome "bee city" that stands in the Botanical Garden in Zurich, Switzerland. 

At a landscape designing blog called Studio G, see a collection of "bee wall" photos. Many of the photos, I think, come from Wildbienen ("Wild Bee"), which looks to be a German blog. I could be wrong, but the language is definitely not English. :-)

Here's a way cool photo taken by Nicolas Vereecken of a magnificent bee hotel in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. Take a look! See more more more photos of bee houses at Hymenopteran Housing Projects Pool page. 

Want to learn more? I found:

* An information sheet on Bee Hotels by Robin Dean. 

* At the Pollinator Garden blog, Marc Collin wrote a post on "How to make a Bee Hotel: A house for mason bees and other solitary bees." 

* The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has a Pollinators page with info on building bee boxes and a link to more instructions, "Encouraging Native Pollinators." 


* The Xerces Society for Invertebrates Conservation has an info sheet, "Nests for Native Bees."


* Even the U.S. Department of Agriculture has instructions, "Build a Nesting Block."

Gee, I don't feel so clever now! 

Snakes, wildflowers and insects

Texas blind snake (Leptotyphlops dulcis)

Last Saturday, James put in a new flower bed in the back yard while I potted up volunteers to give away. When he was moving rocks, he came upon several Texas blind snakes, hiding within a rock's holes. I snapped some photos, then we released them beneath the turk's cap, where they quickly slithered into the mulch and leaf debris. Don't worry–they're completely harmless!  

(Thanks to reader Blake Hendon for correcting the ID of this snake!!!)

Bee (Anthophora sp.) resting on an 'Indigo Spires' leaf.

Queens and monarchs are enjoying the blue mistflowers.

Wildflowers in our meadow:

Silver-leaf nightshade with a colorful beetle

Silver dwarf morning-glory (Evolvulus sericeus)

Texas bindweed

Fineleaf four-nerved daisy (Tetraneuris linearifolia var. linearifolia)

We're officially "bee-friendly"

Like I say a lot, I run down a lot of rabbit trails whenever I'm researching online different subjects. One recent trail led me to Texas Bee Watchers, where I happened onto Kim Bacon's ambitious project, "52 Bee Gardens: 52 Weeks." In her intro, Kim writes, "Texas Bee Watchers is challenging Texans to plant 52 Bee-Friendly Gardens by the end of the 2011. Since TBW may be the only site certifying Bee Gardens, you can make sure Texas has more Official Certified Bee Gardens than any other state by certifying your Bee Garden! Go Texans!"

Naturally, our Wildscape needed bee certification, too! So I wrote Kim and asked if we qualified or did we need to plant a new garden. "Of course, you can apply and get 'certified," she responded. "I saw the list of  plants on your blog, and you've got plenty of great bee plants in your Wildscape. Existing gardens certainly qualify–you're a trendsetter! I took a look at the bee posts you mentioned on your blog. I'm always telling people to watch the bees in the cactus flowers. It's just like you describe–they seem to be having so much fun."

"I'm very serious about people planting for native bees (and other pollinators)," Kim added. "So send in your photos and list, and I'll put your garden on the beewatchers website and you'll be one of the few CERTIFIED bee gardens in the WORLD!"

This morning, I received happy news from Kim: "Thanks for certifying your Bee-Friendly Garden. I've just posted information about your garden on the Texas Bee Watchers website. Your garden is wonderful, and I am sure it will inspire others to restore their their own residential landscapes to a more bee-friendly state. Attached is your official certificate. Welcome to bee-watching!"

On her cool website, Kim gave us a real nice write-up about our Wildscape and posted the photos I submitted. Wow. Give it a read! Thank you, Kim!!

Pollination underway

Dang, I'd never noticed this shrub thing blooming before, and I have no clue right now what it is. What I do know is what it's NOT: wax ligustrum and privet. But the bees and flies were all over it this afternoon. And it smelled good, too. Help, anyone?

UPDATE–I finally took the time to check on this new-to-me species, and reader Mkircus was right! Cool! This is a stretchberry–also called an elbow bush–Forestiera pubescens. I'd never noticed it before. Or maybe I had but didn't have the interest that I do now in natives. I'm going to tie a little ribbon around one of the branches so I can tell it apart from other shrubs going in the Sanctuary corner of our Wildscape. Neat-O!

Butterflies on the mistflower

Late this afternoon, I went outside to soak up some sunshine. While I relaxed on our bench, I watched the butterflies flit around the fragrant mistflower. Surely, I thought to myself, these must be the last of this year's butterflies, mostly skippers (I think). I got up and scrunched down beside the flowers for a closer look. So pretty! Camera time! I spotted some bees, too....

Fiery skipper
(Hylephila phyleus)

Clouded skipper
Lerema accius

I'm guessing a Mexican cactus fly (Copestylum mexicanum)...
UPDATE: On Bugguide.net, a reply to my ID inquiry: "You've nailed it. And it's a girl."
Ron Hemberger

A rare queen (they're mostly gone now)

A frisky red admiral (my favorite butterfly)

And a lone bee!