A gold rush of sorts.

When the female Valley carpenter bees forage among the passion flowers  (Passiflora), they turn from solid black to a mixture of gold and black.

The pollen on their head, thorax and abdomen stands out like magical gold dust, as if sprinkled by the Good Fairy.

On a recent photo expedition in west Vacaville, we watched Gulf Fritillary butterflies (Agraulis vanilla) colonize a passionflower vine (Passiflora incaranata). Meanwhile, these huge Valley carpenter bees buzzed in and out of the purple-centered white flowers. 

A golden opportunity, to be sure.