This was our third stop. Was our luck going to change? We should hoped so.
As you can see we were on a barren. The Leavenworth’s Eryngo (Eryngium leavenworthii) was plentiful and scattered. Jeanne was ready with the net.
We quickly saw a bumble! Yahoo! Number two for the day!
After catching a bumble you had to maneuver the capture jar (ie pill bottle) into the net. Once the bumble was in the jar, carefully slide the lid on being careful not to catch a limb.
Oh my we were starting to see the bumbles! Next step was to put Number 2 and 3 on ice to chill. As they chilled we went out to hunt for more on this patch.
Pollen basket!
I was having a problem getting the front of the bumble so Jeanne gave it a twig to climb. Thus lifting them off the paper for a better angle. They were still groggy from the chill.
We caught two males as this example shows. The males on the American Bumble Bee yellow extents further on the abdomen.
This bumble was puzzling to me. So I asked James about it. The front still looked like a bumble, but the abdomen was mostly bare. James told me as they get old that chafing sometimes occurred. So they were same species of the American Bumble Bee, however with a bare bottom!
And that was all we caught, American Bumble Bees. Eight of them for the day. No Southern Plains Bumble Bees but perhaps next time. And we were learning the technique.
Also I did look again for the A3 comet this morning, but no better luck than yesterday. I will try again in October in the evening western sky.
Glad you found so many bumbles. Great articles. Especially the walking fish.
It was a cool article. 😎
Walking fish – mammoths with hayfever – fun stories.
Hope those night parrots keep going – really pretty birds.
🤞🏼🤞🏼
I love the bumbles. Great news about the night parrot.
Hope the parrots can be saved.
Bumbles!! What a fun day.