Bug Squad

So here we are, planning a long-awaited 113-mile trip from Solano County to Natural Bridges State Park, Santa Cruz, to admire and photograph the overwintering monarch butterflies. Then it happened.

Let's hear it for the honey bees. Right now they're scrambling to gather nectar and pollen from the blanket flower, Gaillardia. You could say they're blanketing the flower. When resources are scarce in the fall, the blanket flower, in the sunflower family Asteraceae, draws them in.

Today, on Veterans' Day, we pay tribute to our military veterans and those serving in our U.S. Armed Forces. It's appropriate to think of America's first veterans from 261 years ago--the patriots who fought in the American Revolutionary War, also known as The War of Independence (1755-1783).

Strange thing, nobody ever says "as green as a green bottle fly." 'Cept maybe an entomologist.

What amazing journeys! For the last two months, migratory monarch butterflies have regularly stopped for flight fuel in our 600-square-foot pollinator garden in Vacaville, Calif. to nectar on Mexican sunflower (Tithonia), butterfly bush (Buddleia) and Lantana.