This weekend, I tried to get some pictures of bumble bees working the fields of hairy vetch behind our house and in a field near Granny's. It was difficult because they were on the move spending only a second or two at each flower and they are so large, they are upside down when on the vetch flowers. I am sure to get better pictures later when the milkweed and cone flowers are in bloom. Some of the bumble bees I have seen were probably queens.
Below ... I think the one on the left is Bombus pensylvanicus (American bumble bee) ... the one on the right ??? There were hundreds still foraging the vetch even in the late afternoon and their pollen baskets were loaded! Other bumble bees in our area in very south central Kentucky are: Bombus impatiens (Common eastern bumble bee / a lot of these this weekend working), Bombus bimaculatus (Two-spotted bumble bee), Bombus griseocollis (Brown-belted bumble bee) and maybe Bombus vagans (Half-black bumble bee). The range of a couple of others are nearby. There are over 20 species in the eastern part of the United States.
http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/documents/BumbleBeeGuideEast2011.pdf
Below, one of several milkweed patches we have not bush-hogged for several years. This colony is about 100 feet long and sixty feet wide. They are heavily budded and should start blooming by next weekend!
Field daisies (probably ox-eye daisies) are still blooming and in abundance in several of our fields.
No comments:
Post a Comment