Tag: pollination

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10/05/2023 red list day

Today I walked outside for a break and saw a very boldly striped bee on the Maximilian sunflowers and thought to myself, “Self, that bee is different.” Turns out I was right! This beautiful lady is a Southern Plains Bumblebee! If I have counted and remembered correctly, this is our fifth bumblebee species for the yard.
This species is an IUCN red list endangered species. It is not federally listed so it has no legal protection in the United States, but it is declining and of great conservation concern. Briar was observing our exciting new friend with great attention.
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04/08/2023 Picture Canyon, Comanche National Grasslands, Colorado

We hopped across the border this afternoon to Colorado (and time traveled to Mountain Time). Here is the sign for Picture Canyon under a cloud-speckled blue sky!
This sign points the way to more prairie! (Or, you know, the trail to the petroglyphs. )
Great rocks and lichens along the trail.
Just a hint of green spring on this tiny tough little bluestem!
This rock was very rectangular.
The chollas here were less sad than the Black Mesa ones. Maybe because this is an arroyo?
The sandstone cliffs were very tall but also a nice cooler microclimate!
A series of vertical line petroglyphs higher up in an eroded hollow area. There is another line through them so they almost look like fish ribs.
A human figure petroglyph!
The horse petroglyph was my favorite!
The horse petroglyph with Briar for scale.
Mom looked at holes in the rocks but didn’t see anyone home. I did hear and see some kestrels flying nearby and heard a Canyon Wren singing though!
These petroglyphs seem to show a horse on the left and two tipis (?). Without more signs it was hard for me to tell what were petroglyphs vs vandalism but most vandalism seemed to be names and initials.
This disk-shaped erosion in the sandstone was neat.
The cooler microclimate with shade and a different rock nearby resulted in some foliose lichens!
We found a flower blooming that wasn’t skunk bush sumac! Mom identified this as Ribes leptanthum, trumpet gooseberry. It has lovely flowers and very friendly spines too. We didn’t see many insects out on either species though, presumably because it’s such a drought.
Little sprinkles to the west (if it even hit the ground) on our way back to camp!
A multipurpose state line sign on a county road.
On the way back we stopped to see the replica of a brontosaurus femur that the park brochures note is on private property by the roadside. It is for commemoration of many dinosaur fossils found on the private property.
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09/08/2022 nighttime only adventure

The Chef wanted to see what was out this week so we took the UV flashlight and checked. Here’s a spider!
It’s beige in regular light.
I had no idea there were hairless bee flies. This one came to the porch light. We turned off the porch light once we went inside so all the critters could go back to their business.
We found three glowing crab spiders. All of them were on insect pollinated flowers, so I wonder if they glow to blend in for pollinators who can see UV? Though on this Salvia greggii, presumably all the pollen is farther down the flower. But we found two on zinnias.
The green striped cushaw squash looks melted!
Escobaria missouriensis cactus spines glow!
There’s a lot of sunflower pollen glowing. You can see how much has fallen off!
This was my favorite picture of the glowing sunflower pollen: just the disk flowers glowing against the dark sky, leaves barely visible.
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08/13/2022 shucking

A full range of glass gem popcorn corn ears!
Some kernels started to pop in the hot dry shade which is what prompted us to bring them inside.
Not sure if this is popping or fungus or something else.
Some kernels appear scratched up but we’re not sure why.
A few ears did not get fully pollinated and were not covered with kernels completely.
These ears had several kernels that popped open.
Natural lighting shows off the colors best.
Everyone’s thumbs are sore from removing kernels.
I used the colander to sift out a bit of chaff. I think Paula has plans to do more later.
Two bowls full. 1,146 g total including our earlier test.
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07/31/2022 garden and neighborhood

A Texas dandelion was open in the backyard prairie after a refreshing 1/10th inch of rain!
Waaaaalk plzzzzzz
We stopped to look at the vegetables on the way out to walk and this magnificent little jumping spider was on guard!
On our walk today, near the sidewalk there’s some unmowed area near a creek. Around this beautiful and native silver leaf nightshade you can see a lot of non native and invasive Johnson grass.
An American bumblebee was visiting the nightshade.
It has a lovely flower. Mom has one that volunteered in her garden area.
The plant has pretty flowers as it crept onto the sidewalk, but turned out to be a non native invasive species called Tribulus terrestris.
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06/28/2022

The accidental shot of the week. I didn’t notice this bee kicking a wasp off its foot until I looked at the photo later!
The bumblebee is feeding on Echinacea purpurea.
Front of the bumblebee face is yellow.
A zoomed in shot. The short overall hairs, all yellow on thorax and head, smoky dark wings, and minimal color on abdomen have led me to think it may be Bombus griseocollis, the brown-belted bumblebee. I have entered the sighting and photos on Bumble Bee Watch’s community science website where they can verify or correct this identification. This would be our fourth bumblebee species for the yard if I have identified it correctly. 🤞🤞
I found a second partridge pea plant blooming in the “prairie”!
An all orangish solider beetle on a Rudbeckia flower.
Shackleton the cat enjoyed hiding in brown crinkly paper. He has such big eyes!
Paula is experimenting with kombucha fermentation thanks to a culture from Abby. This is the first sample and contains a garden strawberry for added flavor. It was good!
Briar helps us observe bees out front. I’ll do a separate post with evening bees if any pics turned out.
A baby moon and stars watermelon!!
A baby praying mantis on the mint!
Paula and I weeded the orange and red section of the rainbow garden. It has a lot of invasive grass in it.