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LinkedInPosts Tagged: Benicia Capitol State Historic Park
Celebrating the New Year with Bumble Bees in Benicia
While folks from Alaska to Colorado to New York to Maine are shivering in freezing temperatures, here in sunny California--well, at least parts of the Golden State are sunny--bumble bees are foraging on winter blooms. Bumble bees? On the first day of the year? Yes. We spotted a dozen yellow-faced...
A yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, forages on New Year's Day, 2017, on jade at the Benicia Capitol State Historic Park. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Check out the cream-colored pollen on this yellow-faced bumble bees, Bombus vosnesenskii, nectaring today (Jan. 1) on jade at the Benicia Capitol State Historic Park. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bottoms up! A yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, dips for nectar on a jade blossom in Benicia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Flowering Jade Draws Some Pollinators
It's not spring yet, but don't tell that to the pollinators at the Benicia Capitol State Historic Park. We traveled to the state park on Monday, Jan. 25 to see if we could find a bumble bee foraging on the jade blossoms. Or more specifically, the black-tailed bumble bee, Bombus melanopygus. ...
European syrphid fly forages on jade at the Benicia Capitol State Historic Park. This is a Eristalinus aenus.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A honey bee foraging on jade at the Benicia Capitol State Historic Park. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
An Awesome Bloomer
At first glance, we thought "Strawberry blossoms!" Not strawberries, though. The white-floral ground cover at the Benicia Capitol State Historic Park is Sutera cordata or bacopa, as identified by Missy Gable, program manager of the California Center for Urban Horticulture at the University...
Honey bee foraging in bacopa on grounds of the Benicia Capitol State Historic Park. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Pollen-covered Benicia bee on bacopa. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
