Happy Mother's Day! We celebrated with a picnic at the farmer's market and I spent some happy time gardening at home and at MACC. I noticed that the white Dutch clover and red clover are blooming today, which may be an indicator for the arrival of some late spring emerging bees such as this turquoise sweat bee and the common large Adrena mining bees we have here. These flowers are five spot, which reseeded themselves from last fall. There were all sorts of bees in the flowers from honeybees down to tiny black solitary bees.
The last of the blue orchard mason bees were also foraging in the five spot and the poached egg flowers, which also reseeded themselves generously. I also witnessed a small female mason bee tripping the keels of the lupin flowers and drinking the nectar in my back yard.
I noticed that even though the two patches of flowers were side by side, the syrphid flies seemed more attracted to the yellow flowers, and the bees were more bonkers over the five spot. It would be worth doing a quick survey of these flowers every time I visit the garden.
The native roses we planted are also in bloom and they were full of little mining and sweat bees swimming in the stamens. Another phenological indicator that's about to happen is the mock orange trees are just starting to bloom.
On a completely different note, I am suddenly seeing a lot of click beetles this year. Keep an eye out for wire worms!
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