Happy Earth Day - our nature neighbors today are bees!
In addition to the very common, but non-native western honey bees, there are over 1,500 native bee species in California. Our native bees are important pollinators, and they depend on a healthy ecosystem. We can help them by providing diverse nesting places for them, such as bee hotels.
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Wow! 1,500 bee species in California - that's incredible. Thanks for the info, @merav. Do you have a reference for how to make bee hotels?
well, I got an updated estimate from @clarkia11 - there are about 1,650 described species in CA, and dozens more in insect collections, waiting to be described!
Wow indeed! I'm thinking about all those wonderful bees I can look forward to photographing. :D
I was surprised to see how many bee species I can find around my home - I found two nomada cuckoo bees last week!
I planted some borage a few years ago - it attracts really big black bees (Foothill Carpenter Bees). Some have golden hair on their thorax; others have black hair. They've built a nest nearby and zip in and out of the garden all day fighting over the flowers. Every once in awhile a yellow-faced bumble bee (Pyrobombus) will stop by.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/42896773
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/42433347
Merav, I had to look up the cuckoo bees, because I've never seen one. They're fascinating. You're lucky to have them in your yard!
wow, the foothills CB is beautiful!
and I think I just got lucky - I was looking for things to photograph for this project, and then noticed the bees. I've never seen them here before.
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