On 6/3/11, Vicki Biltz wrote:

I would love to know if anyone has the exact name of this particular bee.. I was trying to figure it out when some were feeding, and gave up, since there were several species of bees present.

Probably Bombus melanopygus:

<http://crawford.tardigrade.net/bugs/BugofMonth01a.html>

Run, don't walk, to get a copy of Bernd Heinrich's "Bumblebee Economics". It's a great book (as are all of his others, some about birds), and it has a list of north american bumbles with which region they live in, and a two page colol plate with their top side coloring, which, combined with the list, gets you down to at worst two species to choose between. If your library doesn't have it, it's back in print with a few updates, and it's probably also easy to find used.

<http://www.powells.com/biblio/62-9780674016392-2>

"Humblebee Bumblebee" by Brian Griffin is also good, but if you only read one, it should be the Heinrich.
--
Allyn Weaks allyn at tardigrade.net Seattle, WA Sunset zone 5
Pacific NW Native Wildlife Gardening: http://www.tardigrade.org/natives/
Not counting bacteria, one out of every four species isn't a parasite.