What's the Buzz? Scenes from the Pollinator Garden

I visited the Arboretum's pollinator garden around noon on this day. The sun was shining brightly and the sky was deep blue. It was the very picture of what you might imagine (or hope for!) for a summer day.

The pollinators were very busy, and they were zipping from bloom to bloom, playing a pollinator version of musical chairs. Sit and sip. Move on. Sit and sip. Change places. Sit and sip some more. They seemed to be especially enjoying these very tall yellow flowers, which - at about ten feet or so tall - towered well over my head.

How many bees can you locate in this picture? Hint: it's more than you think! Of course, you can start with that one bee buzzing about above the yellow flowers, but look closer, and you'll see more. Tomorrow I'll post the total that I got.

I don't know if you have heard about it, but our bees have been having some hard times. In fact, honeybee populations have been disappearing at alarming rates. And this is bad news not just for the pollinators, but also for human beings, as our pollinators help out by pollinating many of the crops that we eat. Butterflies, other insects, and even birds can help pollinate.

Some of the things we do around our yard at home to help the pollinators include: I have planted a pollinator garden, we have allowed a large portion of our backyard to return to meadow (with native plants and weeds and flowers), we buy local fruits and veggies whenever possible, we minimize the use of pesticides in our yard, and we have placed several small, shallow bowls of fresh, clean water around the yard and especially near the pollinator garden for bees, bugs, birds, and other critters to enjoy. Here are a few links where you can learn more:

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service/Pollinators/What You Can Do

Queen of the Sun/Ten Things You Can Do to Help Bees

Mother Nature Network/Five Ways to Help our Disappearing Bees

The song to accompany this photo of absolute bee bliss is from the film version of the rock opera, Jesus Christ Superstar, starring Ted Neely (who I was fortunate enough to see when he quite spectacularly reprised the role in a live performance at Penn State in February of 2009). The song is What's the Buzz, Tell Me What's a-Happening.

And in conclusion: hooray for our pollinators! Let's hear it for the bees!

I added this on the next day:
And the answer to How Many Bees? I'm coming up with about a dozen. Let's count them, shall we? Let's start at the lower left and work our way right.
1 - At the very bottom left of frame is a yellow stripey bee.
2 - On the flower just above that is an orange-y bee.
3 - To the right and just up a bit is a bee that is partly obscured by the petals of another flower.
4 - Follow the lower border of the photo right just a bit, and there's a yellow bee that may be a honeybee, about a third of the way into the shot, just above the bottom border of the photo.
5 - Looking up a bit higher, there is a flower on the left that is the second tallest flower in the shot. A bee is perched on it.
6 - Look down the stem of that flower; a tiny bit below that bloom, to the right of the stem, is another bloom with a bee on it.
7 - EASY BEE!!! This one was a give-away! There is a bee flying in the middle of the shot, against the blue sky.
8 - Look below that bee - there is a flower with a large black and yellow stripey bee.
9, 10 - The tallest flower is on the right. Follow down its stem and look just a bit to the right of that stem - you will see a flower with TWO bees on it.
11 - Just to the right and down a bit is a flower with another bee.
12 - If you saw bee #11, look a bit to the right and up a bit - a little orange bee is clinging to that flower.