So there we were, on Mother's Day, looking at the yet-to-bloom English lavender in our yard. And there it was, something golden staring back at us. It was showing a face that "only a mother could love"--or an entomologist or an insect enthusiast. Scathophaga stercoraria, the golden dung fly.
It was indeed a honey of a festival. When the inaugural California Honey Festival buzzed into Woodland on Saturday, May 6, organizers figured attendance might total around 3,000. No. It did not.
Like a ballerina on the dance floor of life, a newly eclosed Western tiger swallowtail, Papilio rutulus, flutters from its host plant, a sycamore tree, to a crape myrtle. The yellow-and-black butterfly spreads its wings, warming its flight muscles.
Many mothers will receive a stunning bouquet of flowers on Sunday, Mother's Day. Others will learn how to design and plant a stunning pollinator garden so they can grow--and enjoy--their own flowers. Honey bees, bumble bees and other pollinators will appreciate it, too.
