I headed down to the shore of the Gorge again and saw more bees in the gumweed. It was thrilling to find this Agapostemon texanus female hunkering down on the blossoms.
She's cleaning her antenna here. You can see the branched hairs on her legs she uses to collect pollen.
Looks like she's mostly using the flower to fuel up on nectar at this point.
I also found this delightfully tiny shiny Dialictus sweet bee. She definitely has pollen on her minute pollen pantaloons.
It's amazing to see the size variation of the different bees foraging in the gumweed.
Got mandibles?
Oh yeah!
A cuckoo bee does a deep dive for nectar. It doesn't collect pollen because it outsources its childcare to true bees.
You can see the "happy face" markings on its thorax.
Finally, a sweet little Bombus vosnesenskii drinks his fill in the gumweed cups. It's wonderful to see so many bees on a busy beach where humans are swimming and kayaking and the bees are just going about their daily routines. Let it always bee so.
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