Pollinators on Parade

National Geographic, which can still be counted on for phenomenal visuals, has posted a breathtaking photo slide-show by Mark Moffett of pollinators great and small.

Take a look-see. You won't be disappointed.

Song of the Unsung Pollinator

Thanks to Bug Girl's Blog for surfacing this gem!

Carpenter Bees Part I

Yesterday was a banner day at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. The lilacs were in their prime, working their mind-altering magic on the dazzled crowd of worshipers. Barely noticed on the ground beneath the showy lilac bushes, a thick carpet of deep-purple grape hyacinths played host to a robust constituency of honeybees.

With the honeybees keeping a low profile, the blatant stars of yesterday's pollinator show were the dozens of carpenter bees doing their thing on the glamorous azaleas near the garden's main entrance. I love the vigor and heft of these fuzzy, burly bees, especially in the context of the showy azaleas.The carpenter bees showed a special fondness for the neon-pink azaleas, and virtually no interest in the purple, red, or white ones. There was plenty of C-bee action on the purple wisteria, though, so I'm guessing the non-pink azaleas were not giving nectar yesterday or were simply offering a less delectable flavor profile. It raises interesting questions about what draws a bee to a particular plant at a particular time. The nuances are endless.
Lucky for me, the C-bees were so enraptured with the azaleas that I was able to get close enough with my iPhone to grab a few shots. There's something terribly 1940s about azaleas, don't you think? And (going out on a springy limb here) something so Orson Welles-like about carpenter bees (think driving force, ambition, unapologetic conspicuousness).

Thus it was that, while reveling in all the bee-on-bud action yesterday, my mind unfurled a full-blown mental mash-up involving a Technicolor version of Sunset Boulevard + Busby Berkeley dance moves + Paul Masson wine ad—all populated solely by hearty, gallivanting C-bees. Beware spring's potent cocktail of hot pink flowers, aromatic lilac, and shimmering pollinator charm.

NYC Abuzz With Pollinator Week Activities

Pollinator Week 2009 is almost upon us, and this year for the first time New York City will have an abundance of events and activities to mark this nationwide celebration of the vital role pollinators play in our lives. (The official dates are June 22-28, but around here, pollinator week is every week—or bust.)

A wonderful, energetic organization called Just Food is sponsoring myriad events for Pollinator Week, including "New York Nectar"(signature dishes and drinks featuring local honey at NYC’s favorite bars & restaurants), a "hidden hive" tour, a honey festival at the Union Square Greenmarket, a rally in support of legalizing beekeeping in NYC, and a Beekeepers Ball. Read all about these Pollinator Week events here.

Learn about Pollinator Week events throughout the United States here.

The First Annual Beekeepers Ball

Those of you in and around Gotham City will want to make reservations now for the upcoming fantabulous First Annual Beekeepers Ball to benefit Just Food, which is leading the charge to make beekeeping legal in New York City.

The ball—to take place Monday, June 22 on the shore of the beautiful, new South Street Seaport Water Taxi Beach—promises to be full of "sweetness and buzz." Waggle-dance the night away, enjoy the nectar of honey-infused cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, come dressed as a Beekeeper (all in white) or as your favorite bee (Queen, Worker, Drone) to compete for best-costume awards, and bring along your favorite local honey to share with your fellow pollinator-lovin' peeps.

The Beekeepers Ball is being planned in conjunction with a series of activities to mark Pollinator Week (June 22-28) and raise awareness about the vital role pollinating insects and other critters play in our urban ecosystem and food systems. Buy your tickets now and support a fabulously worthwhile cause.

See the whole lineup of Pollinator Week activities being planned by the folks at Just Food and the Pollinator Week Planning Committee.

Learn more about the Pollinator Partnership's efforts to promote Pollinator Week 2009 nationwide.

Mind the Miners

Interesting little piece in the Times a coupla weeks ago about miner bees—which (I learned from the article) make up 90% of the 4,000 species of native bees found in the U.S.

The Silence of the Bees

Just a reminder of what's at stake.

Pollinator Podcasts

Perhaps you would enjoy a lazy Sunday of listening to some pollinator podcasts:

Podcasts on Honeybee Health and National Pollinator Week 2008 from the Pollinator Partnership.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service podcasts on pollinator gardens, native bees, endangered butterflies, and more.

Penn State podcasts on colony collapse disorder and related issues as part of its Honey Bees in Crisis series.

Become a Pollinator "Exit Pollster"

National Pollinator Week is months away, but from a global swarming perspective, pollinator week exists in perpetuity—it's a subject near to our hearts, uppermost in our minds, and—quite literally—central to our bee-ing.

The Pollinator Partnership has an abundance of resources about pollinators, ideas for sponsoring events that raise consciousness about the vital importance of pollinators, and an action alert to encourage we the people to bring attention to the plight and glory of pollinators by requesting of our governors that Pollinator Week 2009 be officially proclaimed.

Meanwhile, in an exciting new development on the local front, the Great Pollinator Project has launched NYC Bee Watchers—a citizen-scientist project to gather information about the distribution of four groups of bees (honey bees, bumble bees, large carpenter bees, and metallic green bees) in New York City.

Think of it as exit-polling for pollinators (you count them as they leave the flowers on which they're foraging) and visit the site to learn how to reinvent yourself as a "mobile bee watcher." You'll find a nice slide presentation on how to become a NYC Bee Watcher volunteer, instructions on how and when to conduct observations, and guidance on bee identification.

The site includes a page of NYC-specific and urban-focused info—including videos—on bees, bee-watching, and pollination.

There is also a fine resource section linking to online insect identification guides; insect and bee conservation groups; and documents on creating bee-friendly gardens, providing nesting sites for bees, and taking other actions that promote eco-systemic well being.

Pollination 101

Even the most casual conversation about beekeeping soon wends its way toward the inevitable topic of pollination—What is it, exactly? What role do bees play in it? And why should we care about it?

Such questions are usually asked with a vague sense of apology. We know we should be more conversant with something so basic to our food supply and our natural world, yet back in school, who among us did not zone out 150% when the topic of botany arose? The clock hands practically froze when the words "stamen," "stigma," and "anther" were uttered by teachers who somehow managed to make it all seem so distant, static, and dull.

I guess it takes decades of living to realize just how spellbinding plant sexuality can be, and just how mighty a role insect pollination plays in our lives—at least to the degree that our existence is tied with the availability of fruits, nuts, and flowers (not to mention stuff like coffee, cotton, and cola nuts). Check out this cool chart of bee-pollinated crop plants to see the scope of services bees and other insects provide.

I'll be the first to admit that, until I started gardening and beekeeping, the ins and outs of pollination were shrouded in vagueness and/or outright mystery. These days, though, every almond, apple, squash, and berry I encounter brings amazement about the intricacies of pollination and gratitude to the compound-eyed critters who make such gifts as the cukes below possible.Putting aside the 1950s-style narration and attendant assumptions about insect awareness (which I confess I find amusing), this short video provides a decent summary of how flowering plants reproduce.


Here's more:

A ton of fact sheets from the Xerces Society about pollinator conservation.

A HowStuffWorks Video on Pollination & Fertilization.

A Wikipedia page fruit tree pollination.

Wikipedia on pollination in general.

The Pollinator Partnership's new ecoregional planting guides to attract pollinators to your garden.

The utterly fascinating Pollinator Conservation Digital Library.

A New York Times article on the sexual trickery of orchids and hot, hot waspy action!

Joe-Pye Weed

"The summer is nearly over when the tall, conspicuous Joe-Pye-weeds begin to tinge with 'crushed raspberry' the lowlands through which we pass."--How to Know the Wild Flowers by Mrs. William Starr Dana

According to the same book, first published by Scribner in 1893, Joe Pye was an American Indian who cured typhus fever in New England using this plant.
This bee, above, made me think of Atlas with a pink world on her shoulders.

I believe the bee in the pics above is the red-tailed bumblebee. Not sure what kind of bumblebee is pictured below, but I welcome help with IDing it.

The Milkweed Cometh

Last week, the milkweed started to blossom, attracting an astonishing array of beetles, spiders, bees, moths, butterflies, snails, and other critters. In the past week, I've seen the following:


You might also get a kick out of last summer's post entitled, Got Milkweed?, which reveals the dangerous side of milkweed and provides additional documentation of the enormous diversity of animals I've seen visiting these fascinating flowers.

In Praise of Daisies

Reaping What We Sow

The Players:

Cecil "Bee" DeMille

Queen Bee Wren

Blogger Bee

MollyBGoode

Sencha Bee

The Assignment:
To do our part for the Help the Honeybees campaign sponsored by Haagen-Dazs, maker of the world's best chocolate ice cream (no, they are not paying me to say that). HD is distributing mass quantities of wildflower seeds that will, we hope, spring to life to provide food, pleasure, and moral support to our honeybee friends and other pollinators.

The Action Steps:
Step one was to don suitable attire. Cecil "Bee" was good enough to acquire antennae and a bee suit, so we could imbue the occasion with the appropriate level of gravitas. Queen Bee Wren was elected to wear the honorary bee suit, which came equipped with a stinger. (Fortunately, she was not called upon to use it.)
Here's Wren double-dipping on the antennae supply in search of extra-sensory perception and then some.
Step two: transfer the wildflower seeds from their cheerful, well-branded seed packages into old (but clean) yogurt containers with which we could readily travel with said seed.Our only disappointment here was the absurd ratio of packaging to seeds.An ecological annoyance, especially given the matter at hand. More seeds per package would have made a lot more sense; with all due respect to their delicious ice cream, someone @ Haagen-Dazs should have noticed the eco-irony here and taken steps to avoid the paper-wastage problem. We were not amused by all the garbage, and wished the paper had at least been less slickly treated and more compostable.
But, it being a beautiful day, and we being women on a mission, we pulled ourselves together and cheerfully prepared to carry out the appointed task of spreading our seed hither, thither, yon and wherever else we could find an appropriately sunny and fertile-looking spot.(We knew not what type of seeds were in the packages, as this info was mysteriously absent from the ample packaging. Let us hope this is not some bizarre plot to lure the trusting and unwitting into propagating bio-engineered corn, jellyfish-enhanced rhubarb, or some other form of hellacious whatnot. The seeds were in fact quite beautiful and diverse—a concert of slate, mustard and sepia shapes and textures.)
Step Three: Cecil B. took wing (and camera, and videocam—and of course, seeds) and we followed her down the road toward points well known.Along the sunny roadside, we promiscuously disbursed our seeds with a wing and a (paganistic) prayer.Then we flew back to the hive!
But not before being spotted in our bee paraphernalia by our neighbors! Fortunately, these are the friendliest and most simpatico of neighbors—Linda (foreground) and her mom—my good friend—Irene. Linda, a former beekeeper herself , did not miss a beat, asking us if we were swarming...Not every neighbor would be so witty and astute.
As we chatted with Linda and Irene, I had a minor fit of ecstasy because I realized we could clearly see ourselves reflected in all our stripy glory in Linda's compound-eye-like sunglasses. Here we are!
It was getting all too intertwingular, so we bid farewell to Irene and Linda, perked up our collective antennea, and headed back to the ranch. We'll keep you updated if anything comes of our casual sowing-bee. All in all, it was a good and happy afternoon—fun to spread a little future-life in the field of dreams.

The End.