Save Bees

Bees ask for so little: a variety of seasonal flowers, undisturbed nesting sites (in soil, under leaves, and in stems and logs), a relatively poison-free life, a generally predictable climate. Helping pollinators helps so many other plants and critters 💛 savebees.org

🌿 The secret yearning expressed by #plastic plants. What do you think? #fake #livingwall #climate

@StevenFalk1 SW Oregon for the moment (west of Cascades, so more like temperate rainforest, though there’s ever-diminishing forests here owing to logging and wildfires)

@savebees Where is your area?

How quickly the ground-nesting bees are out again once the rain passes! Their nest holes were closed up this morning, but once the sun came out I began seeing little piles of soil being pushed out near burrow entrances.

It used to be prairie full of wildlife and native plants. That was better. It would be better again.

@StevenFalk1 These are the adults in our area. Interesting how their lifecycle depends on their larvae grabbing onto a bee of the right kind visiting a flower. On the bee in my video, I’d have thought it should have got off the bee while she was in her burrow?

@StevenFalk1 Ah right oil beetles! I see them around here, forgot their larvae could get quite so large, but then again they’re big beetles. I saw one of these dangling off one of these bees (years ago). We have many bee flies and cuckoos around the nest aggregation too.

1. The Isle of Portland is a fabulous place for seeing wild bees in spring thanks to its rugged coastline, numerous abandoned quarries, bumblebird arable fields, and sheltered places like @PortlandBirdObs. So I'm going to celebrate some in this thread.

@StevenFalk1 I got as far as Volucella myself, but then wasn’t sure, as I’m no fly expert. I’ve seen these over the years on orchard blossoms (Pacific NW / SW Oregon), tho they’re usually gone in a flash! Here’s an (iPhone) overhead shot. Fluff between eyes surprised me for a fly!

@savebees Yellow-faced Swiftwing (Volucella facialis)? I'm assuming it's a North American Volucella.

There’s good reason to mimic a stinging bumble bee… this hover fly barely gives itself away (antennae being the most obvious giveaway). Such speedy little creatures (to appreciate the zippiness of liftoff, I slowed the final clip by 95%). Flies can be pollinators too 🪰🌸

Before the rains came, I staked out one particular hole in our ground bee nesting aggregation. This bee spent ~12 minutes on foraging trips vs ~6 minutes in her burrow. Occasionally she spent longer, pushing soil out as she excavated. Amazing she can turn around down there!

Did you know: ~90% of corn seed and ~75% of soybean seed are pre-coated with pesticides. Applied prophylactically—pest or no pest. 130–150 million acres of American farmland dusted with neonicotinoids every year. Most farmers can't even buy untreated seed.

“Celebrating” Earth Day… Insect populations are crashing, w/drastic drops of 60-80% since the 70s. Wild mammals showing comparable declines. Half of all forest loss occurred in last century. We’re not just losing species but complexity, diversity, relationships. But sure, let’s celebrate by buying more stuff marketed as “sustainable”.

Bees are thought to have evolved in deserts, and are still found in their highest diversity in deserts. 🐝🌵 In the #ChihuahuanDesert one small area (of only ~6 sq miles) was discovered to be home to almost 500 bee species!

#ChihuahuanDesert today. Cactus bee in prickly pear blossom.

It's the chocolate lily, camas, buttercup time of year. Every one is a precious being.

Here’s a photo I took today: A mating pair of Red Mason Bees (Osmia bicornis) 💘

Rock purslane, a drought tolerant perennial from Chile is popular around here with both gardeners and native bees. A quality photo bonus is the striking color of its pollen. This Agapostemon subtilior is appreciating both nectar and pollen. [Alameda, CA 4-14-26] #bees #nativebees

Three Green Bees from three different subfamilies from the Amazon! 💚🐝 The rainforests of Peru harbour some of the most incredible metallic bees in the world, like these ones! 🤩 Sweat Bee (Temnosoma sp.) Cuckoo Bee (Ctenioschelius sp.) Kleptoparasitic Orchid Bee (Exaerete sp.)