Save Bees

Here’s the female long-horned bee (with her signature fluffy leg brushes for storing pollen). I’d thought the male was only seeing off (from “his” thistles) all beings other than females of his species, but he even dive-bombs her at the end here (seemingly not w/mating in mind)!

Those blue eyes! Finally ambushed this male long-horned bee waking on a thistle flower. Once he’d partaken sufficiently of the nectar to-hand (to-proboscis), he buzzed off energetically to begin his day’s defense of this thistle patch (including from photographers)!

Lacewings! Excellent garden friends, and just look at those antennae moving! Forgive the handheld macro, I saw the lacewing and grabbed my camera without having time to adjust my setup at all (this lens isn’t ideal for handheld video, very little depth of field plus breezy out).

Saw one other solitary wasp (unsure who he or she is). This one was spending the night on a drooping grass seed-head near the daises.

Also worth a closer look at the underside of these wasps… surprisingly fluffy, so excellent pollinators in their own right!

There be wolves… …bee wolves, that is! From a bee lover’s perspective, I take solace in knowing that high predator populations indicate plentiful prey. I had only to turn around to find *five* bee wolves in a single clump of daisies! #wasplove

Such high-energy on a searingly hot June day… how they quiver so when alighting, as though eager to keep their flight muscles moving! (Oregon Swallowtail feeding on Armenian aka Himalayan blackberry… my personal nemesis, the blackberry that is, oh my goodness what a plant)

Another daisy friend from this morning, though not nearly so fluffy!

Who says beetles can’t be pollinators too? Such fluff! (Checkered Beetle)

Such a pretty garden visitor (those fluffy orange leg tufts!!) yesterday evening (Macculloch’s Forestry Moth)