Texas Bee Watchers

Identifying Texas Native Bees

Dr. Jack Neff gave a great talk in Austin last Wednesday night on identifying native bees. Dr. Neff is our Texas Expert on Native Bees and we are sure lucky to have him out there stalking native bees and sharing his information with us.  

It is hard to identify these native bees on the wing. But there is so much more information available to help us than there was even two years ago. If you click on the Bees button in the navigation bar above, you will find several on-line photo keys and slideshows to help you learn to identify the native bees.

First Bluebonnet of the Season in Central Texas

Just saw this on the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Facebook page.  It should serve as a reminder that if the flowers are beginning to bloom, the native bees won't be far behind.

Current temperature in Austin: 47 degrees with a freeze expected tonight.

Much too cold and too early for this blooming plant. I might have to go out and check it for native bees–after the freeze.

What's Blooming Right Now?

Bee Watchers, what's blooming right now in your garden/yard/park?  Post the names of your blooming plants by clicking on Comments below.

Native Bee Biology

What's so different about a Texas native bee? Well, the key here is the lifestyle. 

Honeybees, our non-native bee, just do some things differently than our native bees. You may have heard me refer to our native bees as "solitary" bees.  And then wondered what I was talking about when you saw a herd of Carpenter Bees buzzing your Indigo Spires.  This link will take you to a page on the Xerces Society website that will explain some basic native bee biology.

This is a photo of a bumble nest in an old rodent hole.

 

After the Freeze

Vernon has checked the garden most weeks during December and January, but this is the first time I've been out here since mid-November.

The seeds have all disappeared–either eaten or blown away– and the old stalks and stems stick up from the ground and look pretty miserable. But, between the drab stalks and the cold dirt, green masses of leaves are beginning to spread out. The new Chimney Swift house rises up tall and substantial in the field and the Purple Martin House looks ready for spring residents. The Welcome sign will soon be out for native pollinators.
 

 

Depending on the weather–as always–the garden work will increase from here on out. Vernon is anxious to plant more Blackland Prairie plants, I'm anxious to finish the fence, we are both anxious to get the expansion to the garden laid out and ready to plant, and then–as always–we  want to get a head start on the weeds. 

And the bees will start arriving within the next few weeks. For a few weeks in January and February, it is hard to find a native bee in the garden. With the first spring blooms, however, I'll be on native-bee patrol. If you are a bee-watcher in the Austin area, let me know if you are interested in coming out on a ACLPG workday. Workdays will be posted here.

Pollinator Curriculum for Teachers

I've had several requests for lessons on pollinators, pollination, and creating pollinator habitat. Nature's Partners: Pollinators, Plants, and You contains lessons for grades 3-6 that focus on ways that pollinators are important to people and ways that people can create and enhance pollinator habitat. The lessons focus on Bees and Butterflies. The lessons were developed by the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign.