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Posts Tagged: almond blossoms
A Beauty of a Day: Bumble Bees in Benicia
If there's anything better than seeing honey bees foraging on almond blossoms, it's this: Bumble bees foraging on almond blossoms. Make that the yellow-faced bumble bees, Bombus vosnesenskii, in Benicia. Sunday morning as the temperatures soared...
A yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii,heads for an almond blossom in Benicia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, nectaring on almonds in Benica. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A yellow thorax and face help identify Bombus vosnesenskii. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A wing of Bombus vosnesenskii glistens in the sun. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A yellow abdominal stripe helps characterize Bombus vosnesenskii. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Time to go! Bombus vosnesenskii departs one blossom for another. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
'A' is for Almonds and 'B' is for Bees and Bradford Pear Blossoms
No, it's not Valentine's Day, yet. Yes, the almonds are blooming. No, it's not spring. But it looks like spring in Benicia. The almonds are blooming in the Benicia (Calif.) State Recreation Area. Some are on the road at the entrance to the...
Benicia resident Gordon Hough captured this image of a bee nectaring on a Pyrus calleryana (Bradford pear or another cultivar) at the Benicia State Recreation Area on Monday, Jan. 21, as identified by Daniel Potter, UC Davis professor of plant sciences.
Almonds are blooming in Benicia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Carpenter Bees Like Almond Blossoms, Too
We're accustomed to seeing honey bees pollinating the almonds. But carpenter bees do, too. We spotted a female Valley carpenter bee, Xylocopa varipuncta, foraging in an almond tree on Feb. 24 in a field adjacent to the Harry H. Laidlaw...
A female Valley carpenter bee buzzes in the almond blossoms. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Full speed ahead: carpenter bee sights an almond blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Female Valley carpenter bee meets almonds blossom. She's shaking her thoracic muscles to loosen the pollen. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Almonds Are Blooming! The Almonds Are Blooming!
Everyone has a favorite almond tree, right? Mine--well, it's not exactly mine!--is on the grounds of the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road, University of California, Davis. It's spectacular in bloom. You can hear the...
Springlike scene--a honey bee foraging in almond blossoms. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Golden is her color and white is her aim. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Close-up of honey bee pollinating an almond blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
An Early Bloomer
You've heard of late bloomers. How about early bloomers? A trip to the Benica (Calif.) State Recreational Park on Sunday yielded quite a surprise: a solo blossom on a bare almond tree. Almonds don't usually start blooming until around...
A solo almond blossom blooming Jan. 5, 2014 in Benicia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
It will be a few weeks until we see scenes like this. This photo was taken Feb. 11, 2013. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
