Bug Squad

"About 90 percent of all bees are actually solitary. So despite kind of the public impression that all bees are like honey bees and bumble bees, we have a lot of these bees that are living on their own.

It's all about the birds and the bees and the flowers and the... Think birds and bats, honey bees and hornets, butterflies and beetles, and the flowers they pollinate. Think yeast cultures and cougars, and nematodes and nightingales, and lions and ladybugs.

Hear that buzz? California almond pollination season is approaching. The season usually begins around Valentine's Day, Feb. 14, but we usually see the first-of-the-year almond blooms in mid-January in a hot spot near the Benicia marina. That's where we saw them on Jan.

"What are YOU doing here?" It was Saturday morning, Jan. 23, and the monarch caterpillar seemed to be sunning itself on a milkweed leaf in our family's pollinator garden in Vacaville, Calif., a Solano County city situated between San Francisco and Sacramento. Yes, Saturday, Jan. 23.

The 10th annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day, a science-based day celebrating the diversity of life, will sport a new look and a longer life this year. It won't be a single day for you to visit all the museums and collections on campus and talk to the scientists.