This is an organic farm that I used after not finding Bumble bees at any of the other sites I picked out for my first attempt counting Bumble bees for the PNW Bumble Bee Atlas. Plenty of diversity. This is a small field surrounded by organic apple orchards. Currently it is planted with two different things, some kind of specialty carrots for seed and a Red Clover cover crop on the rest. The Bumble bees were only two types--B. fervidus and B. centralis and they stuck to the Red Clover. The carrot flowers pulled in a wide variety of bees, wasps and flies. The Colorado Potato Beetles were in some potatoes that seemed to be volunteers, maybe leftovers from the previous year.
It was only hiding, but we could not see it at all. My son and I explored Chinook Pass up to Paradise Lodge, which was also invisible in the mist. The meadows at the lodge were also covered in snow--we arrived much too early this season--so have a great excuse to go back again.
This pretty metallic green bee made me wish I could do macro videos. She had the most interesting way to attack the anthers of this Missouri or Ozark Primrose. She started at the bottom end of the long anther covered in fluffy looking pollen. First she clamped her mandibles around the anther which left her legs unencumbered. She grabbed or scraped the pollen off with her legs and then worked it into a ball, while also curving and straightening her abdomen. It looked as if she was rolling a snowball with every part available, only with pollen instead of snowflakes... When that section was cleared she stretched out her head and grabbed on a little further up the anther. She cleaned off that section, patting more pollen onto the ball against her abdomen. She continued working her way up the anther until it was emptied. Then she flew away with her prize.
This Osmia bee had to work a little to push the keel of the lupine flower down in order to get to the pollen. I think the stigma has the arched shape that reaches upward in order to gather the pollen from the scope of the bee.
A. manicatum found its way to the east coast of the United States around 1963. They spread across the country and were found in Chelan County, Washington State about 50 years later. The male takes his job of defending his territory seriously. Not only will he face off and bat away other bees, he may knock them to the ground and it is told that he may kill offenders. Not satisfied with that, he will face off any people that come into his space. Since he resembles a wasp when flying it intimidates people enough to back away--most never realize that he has no sting so he's really all bluster!
The much more peaceful native Anthidium that came to our yard prefered to work on Silverleaf / Phacelia hastata, which is also a native plant species. She was also about half as big as the A. manicatum.
Both make their nests from the fluffy fibers of plants. They are in the leafcutter bee family and it is easy to spot their nests plugged with white cottony fibers.
It seems that the lizards that populate our yard are either Western Fence Lizards or Northwestern Fence Lizards. Time will tell if they are all the same or if we have two kids, as people ID them more. I was trying to take a photo of a flying insect this week and as I followed it across the yard, it flew right into the mouth of a waiting Western Fence Lizard. Snap and it was over for that insect.
[Find photo of eggs and lizard that was run over, baby lizard next to a pencil].
I have seen skinks here only four times. The first blue tail dove under some rocks to hide when I was weeding down by the mailbox. One used to live under the paver by the spigot under the kids' bedrooms. There was one earlier this year warming up on a rock in the rocky basalt hill toward town. the photo of the tail was out on the part of our hill that was the blueberry row. The last two places were ones my husband rearranged with an excavator--so I hope they were able to escape that danger and we'll see them again. There are now more rocks on the blueberry hillside and the blueberries have been moved into their own patch, so it should be better habitat for warming up in the sun, hiding below stone roofs and such from now on.
The alligator lizard was up in the middle of Tumwater Canyon. We were looking for rubber stamp boxes, which is similar to geocaching. It was in the rocks and talus on the side of the widest parking area at the side of the road that the rock climbers use. It looks like this is about as north as this type comes by the map associated with them, and the Wikipedia entry says the males have 3 types of polymorphism--something I will try to read about, because it didn't add much more to that interesting fact.
A trip down the road south of Vantage is where I found the Side-blotched Lizard. There was a big fire (summer 2018) and I wanted to see what the results were. I stopped at a road with access to the river and explored the beach. This lizard was under a Snowy Buckwheat and just sat looking at me (but it was a cool windy day for August, so maybe it was just cold).
Emily is a young Coleopterist that I know. Don and I try to be mentors for her, even though we are native bee people. I am using this journal entry to hold the beetles in a collection so that we can find them better.
Mostly the beetles I see in here seem to like lupine the most. The Lady Beetles are after the aphids. The others seem to hang out on the flowers. The other most used plant is the Rubber rabbitbrush, Ericamosa nauseosum.
