I presume this is a bee?
But it is VERY small.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/75916062
Same here!
If only iNat would allow a bit of video. Often, a bee that is very noticeable in the LIVE version of the iPhoto is just a indistinguishable blur in the stills. I spend a silly amount of time looking at each frame in the LIVE picture to see if one of them is even marginally useable.
Sometimes, I manage to find a useable frame.
But not always.
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I notice native bees if they’re around to notice–but most of the time they’re not. I’ve read California is a hot spot of bee diversity, but if I walk out my front door there’s next to no chance of me spotting any bee except Apis mellifera. Two reasons for this
- with the exception of Xylocopa, nearly all native bees visit only native plants, of which there are none in urban environments
- many native bees are very seasonal and only out and about for a limited time
Growing up I had never seen any bees other than Apis and Xylocopa. When I was 14 my much older sister moved to Oregon and while visiting I was enchanted by my first encounter with a Bombus sp., which I thought looked like something in a cartoon.
I do now have observations of 11 bee types–not a lot but better than nothing. As others have said on this thread already, ability to get a decent photo is a major barrier, and also it’s frustrating that many species seem not to be identifiable from photos .
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I do try to take note of bees here, including the local Apis mellifera subspecies which is very much native. I do agree that the other native bees that aren’t the aforementioned species or ones big and loud enough to be noticed (which here means large carpenter bees, which many mistake for bumblebees) are criminally underappreciated and underreported.
I have been made much more aware of bees thanks to the work of two local researchers (Ujubee) and their Facebook page.
Here are my observations of bees so far - I really enjoy contributing in some small way to the visibility of these amazing insects.
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I notice the bees when I notice them, that’s all I can say. I’m happy to have a few records of several species in several locations around the world, though.
I agree, staring at flower patches will be a good way to spot bees native to your area. Taking a “good enough for iNat” photo of them can prove somewhat challenging, depending on size of the bee and activeness.
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I think I do actually see more native bees than honeybees in native habitats these days. At least, in spring and early summer. There are some sites I go to where it’s all honeybees, especially out of season, but right now even in weedy areas I feel I’m seeing a lot of tiny native species.
Of course, they are a nightmare to photograph. It’s no wonder many of them are IDed from microscope examination only.
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I like the website https://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q because you can search for a plant species or genus and at the bottom it shows bees associated with that plant. For example, Rosa woodsii has:
|Apidae|Bombus flavifrons @ I_ADG (1)|
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I’m working to change this in my city. My yard is planted with 25 native trees, shrubs, and succulents and another 30-40 native grasses and wildflowers. https://friendsofvalledeoro.org/abq-backyard-refuge/
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Great! Of course when I say “none” I’m exaggerating a little because there are a few people who have purposely put natives in their yards, which is fantastic. I can think of one house within walking radius (2 mi or so) of my apartment that’s done entirely native, and a few other people who have a native sage here or there. Last year during COVID shutdown I did a lot of wandering around looking at other people’s yards, internally judging their plant choices ;)
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This isn’t a true field guide, but it has lots of tips for the different tribes and generas https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691160771/the-bees-in-your-backyard
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Thanks!!
Does Winnipeg have a city guide to its bees? Toronto does. Maybe you could push city council to do something better than what Toronto has. :)
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That is a really nice booklet! Much better than New Mexico https://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/bees/welcome.html
Perhaps you could approach those neighbors with native plants and ask if you might document the pollinators visiting them. :-) I have a small plot but I don’t get much sun. My neighbors get a little more and they have a slightly larger garden of natives (neither of our native plantings are at all large - we live in a neighborhood with yards but it’s quite urban). Since their native plants are at the back fence, I can access it from their parking pad which butts up against ours. I’m often out seeing what is visiting their Joe Pye Weed. They’re used to me and I let them know what kind of bees I thought they had (as far as I can tell, furrow bees… but there aren’t a lot of people identifying bees so I could be wrong).
I put up a small bee house (I know they’re controversial), a saucer I can fill with water, and I have perhaps 6 pollinator-attractive plants and I get quite a lot of bees, wasps and hover flies. So every little plot helps. I’ve been thinking of inviting all the neighbors with kids to stop by the garden on their walks and let the kids see what bees are buzzing around.
I have to say, I am so lucky to have a small city garden nearby. The intention is for the garden to be full of blooms and it is often the site of weddings. But, although the plantings aren’t purely native, and attractiveness of blooms are important, they seem to do a bang up job of planting things that attract pollinators. Once the flowers bloom, that place is just teeming with insects (and spiders) of all sorts. And - bonus - in Sept, it serves as a stop over for migrating hummingbirds. There can be as many as 30+ hummingbirds flitting around this relatively small space.
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I do! But I’m not seeing many this year which is making me really sad. My pollinator garden got a ton last year but with the same flowers this year, I’m getting very few, mostly carpenter bees.
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That’s disappointing. Anything new in your or your neighbors’ yard care? Ground disturbance, tree trimming, and pesticides could be to blame. I’ve also heard people blame some of the extreme winter weather in southern US states.
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I’m Dallas area; we lost trees and shrubs in the freeze but not our native ones. Neighbor lost a huge cypress (they dont’ believe it yet, but that thing is dying).
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I mentioned trees because Megachilidae (masons, leaf cutters, wool carders) nest in wood. Mortality from a big freeze and lots of fallen tree limbs with bee nests hauled away might explain the drop in numbers.
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It looks like a parasitic wasp (Chalcidoidea) from the general shape. There are some bees that get down to about 2 mm though so it’s hard to tell from the photo.
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For ID’ing bumble bees, there’s an excellent site for observers in North America:
https://www.bumblebeewatch.org/
I use the identification keys regularly when reporting bumble bees to iNat.
We’re very fortunate to see substantial numbers of bees in our garden every year - and most are native, not Western Honeybees. The decline in bee numbers elsewhere does not seem to have caught up to us (yet) in Northwestern Ontario. There were so many bees on the wild Canada Plum trees this spring you could hear the hum from half-way across the yard.
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