busy bees in the backyard
Now that the cosmos flowers are blooming, along with a new bloom of the lavender plants, the backyard literally is abuzz with activity.
Although the fog has been hanging in the area until early afternoon, as is normal for the Bay Area, once it has burned off and the sun shines, the honey bees and native bees get busy.
In the image above, a leaf cutter bee enjoys the nectar and gathers pollen from a Prom Dress cosmos Cosmos bipinnatus blossom. I will devote an entire post to the leaf cutter bee, because
they are making their presence in the backyard more than I've noticed before.
In the image above are two kinds of bees on the same lavender plant, a wool carder male bee and a honey bee. You can see that the wool carder bee is a lot more robust built than the honey bee.
In the image here a female carpenter bee is sitting on a rose leaf, after collecting pollen from lavender and cosmos blossoms.
A honey bee is sitting on a wilted rose blossom, moving pollen to its baskets.
And here is the same honey bee, seen from the front, still moving pollen to its baskets.
