Bug Blog
Here Come the Sun(Flowers)
You can't drive by a sunflower field without smiling. Their golden heads turned toward the sun, their fringed petals aglow, sunflowers set an amicable scene in a world sometimes darkened by strife...
Honey bee heads for a sunflower in a field off Pedrick Road, Dixon. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Close-up of honey bee foraging on a sunflower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Row of hives along sunflower field on Pedrick Road, Dixon, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
What's Peering Over the Petals?
There are many reasons why honey bees don't come home at night. One of them: a stealthy praying mantis. If you like to photograph flowers, odds are that some day you'll see more than one insect on...
Honey bee nectars a zinnia, unaware of a predator eyeing her every move. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Coming up empty, the praying mantis stares at where the bee had been. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Honey of a Visit
When youngsters meet Alyssa Fine, the first thing they ask is “Do you ever get stung?” They also ask if the bee population is “still” declining and if she’s a...
Beekeeper Brian Fishback shows Alyssa Fine the bee sculpture in the Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
American Honey Bee Queen Alyssa Fine watches a honey bee forage in the zinnias at the Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Are Bees Finding the 'Zen' in Zinnias?
Eye-catching zinnias grace the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, the half-acre bee friendly garden planted in the fall of 2009 next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee...
Honey bee nectaring on a zinnia in the Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee foraging on a zinnia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Circling a zinnia blossom, a honey bee seeks food for her colony. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Diggin' the Bees in Bodega
They can fool you. Just like replica designer bags, shoes and sunglasses meant to look like the real thing (think Louis Vuitton, Jimmy Choo and Prada), those digger bees on Bodega Head,...
Female digger bee, Anthophora bomboides stanfordiana, heads for her nest. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Packing pollen, a female digger bee, Anthophora bomboides stanfordiana, crawls into her nest. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey),
Outline of sand cliff with female digger bee heading home. Note the turrets these bees build. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The male digger bee, Anthophora bomboides stanfordiana, looks less like a bumble bee than the female. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)