Our high was 95F! Yikes! Much too hot for me for a February. And the plums were very fragrant today. So I took the time to visit the patch to see what might be hungry.
And seemed there were plenty of hungry folks! You might be able to see one at the top of the photo flying to find its perfect meal.
The non-native Honey Bees were loading up. And they far out number the native creatures.
The female Carpenter Bee came!
A Flower Fly or Hover Fly or Syrphid Fly are a few of the common names used for those in the Syrphinae family. There are about 300 species in 43 genera in the US.
Indeed this little bee was carrying a heavy load!
The Texas Paper Wasp (Polistes apachus) came as well.
The Texas Paper Wasp cousin, the Red Paper Wasp attended the feast too. However it was not very interested in getting its picture taken.
What do you do when the milkweeds aren’t up yet? The Small Milkweed Bug (Lygaeus kalmii) says dine at the plum patch.
And while all the folks were enjoying the plum patch, the Sandhill Cranes were not interested at all. LOL.
So dining at the plum patch seemed to be plum good today!
We heard a few cranes a couple days before you reported this. Never saw them. Seems like your various blooming plants are quite ahead of us down here. My Mexican Plums are in full bloom now (28th) but redbuds show no sign of buds.
Mystery solved. Microclimates. Redbuds in town are in full bloom. Out in the country exposed and not next to a warm building, they aren’t even budding yet.
So many pollinators. Its great to see so many out and about.
Tis!
Lots of Sandhills here today too – flying so high!
So hard to locate when they fly high.
We saw sandhills yesterday and today!
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Great to see all the friends! Hope the plums don’t get frosted. That seems to be a big problem with these increasingly frequent warm spells.
That’s danger eh. 🤷🏻♀️
Great to see the pollinator photos. They’re blooming here and the fragrance is wonderful. So many cranes overhead today.
I don’t mind the wild plums but the mexican plum is stinky to me 🤪 but is pretty. 😊
We heard a few cranes a couple days before you reported this. Never saw them. Seems like your various blooming plants are quite ahead of us down here. My Mexican Plums are in full bloom now (28th) but redbuds show no sign of buds.
That is strange that some of our plants sre ahead of gours to the south. Not how I would thought. 🤷🏻♀️
Mystery solved. Microclimates. Redbuds in town are in full bloom. Out in the country exposed and not next to a warm building, they aren’t even budding yet.
What a good suggestion… makes sense
It sure is fun to see which critters come to flowers.