Bug Squad

What a treat to find not one--but five yellow-faced bumble bees (Bombus vosnesenskii) foraging on a rosemary hedge on Valentine's Day. Feb. 14 was a perfect day for foragers, as the temperature climbed into the '70s, an unusually warm February day. The site: The Glen Cove Marina in Vallejo, Calif.

"Got 'em!" That's the message we've all been waiting for.

There's good news and not-so-good news about the Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count in California. Last December the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation released preliminary figures. Now they've announced the final tally: almost 272,000 monarchs (Danaus plexippus).

You could say that noted entomologist/author Stephen Buchmann has a thing for buds, bees, beetles and butterflies...buds that burst into flowers, and bugs that burst into pollinators.

Bee my valentine. There's something about a honey bee foraging on a flowering quince that makes you long for Valentine's Day and the end of winter. Flowering quince (Chaenomeles sp.) is one of the first flowers of the year to bloom. And bloom it does, in between the rain drops and rays of sunshine.