The bee topic prompted me to go look around today for bees. Sadly, I'm not
good at bee ID.



There were plenty of buzzing bees and bee-like critters (possibly also bees)
working away on this hot day. I'm not an expert at telling honeybees from
honeybee look-alikes, but bees that I think were honeybees were especially
concentrated on the lavender and pentstemon. There is an entomologist (Dr.
Brown) with bee hives who lives about 1.5 from me as the bee flies. I don't
know whether bees would fly that far across wheat fields or if there is a
"wild" hive somewhere nearby. We usually have a fair amount of honeybees (or
bees that I think are honeybees).



Most of my ornamental lupines and the native lupines have passed their peak
flowering. They are a huge bumblebee favorite. A few days ago, I saw the
dog leaping up in the air to snap at something I'm pretty sure was a
bumblebee. Luckily for bee and dog, the dog did not succeed.



The fireweed is attracting a lot of honeybees and bee-like things that are
buzzing and fuzzy but more grayish a typical honeybee. I looked through a
few web pictures of mason bees, but none of them look like my grayish bees.



The yellow-jackets and paper wasps do appear to be down this year, but I've
thought that in the past only to have them suddenly seem to be everywhere
after a few weeks of hot, dry weather. Some years when we have had nesting
House Wrens, the yellow jacket/paper wasp numbers have seemed low and I have
wondered whether the House Wrens were responsible or it was coincidence.
No nesting House Wrens this year, however.



I wouldn't put too much stock in the fruit tree crop as an indicator of a
good bee year. Fruit trees can very sporadic. If their peak flowering
happens to coincide with a big windstorm or a cold wet spell, they may have
no crop while a tree that flowered a week earlier or later did fine. Our
big, old yellow cherry had virtually no crop this year (very rare for it)
while our more sporadic sour cherry is laden with fruit.



Kelly Cassidy

Pullman,WA