

The California towhees
A pair of California towhees spent some quality time around the lambs ears in the morning. Now that the blooming period is over for many...


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...


Ivory banded digger male bee waking up on Klondike cosmos
Last week I observed an ivory banded digger male bee sleeping on a prom dress cosmos blossom. And this morning I observed another ivory...