July 13, 2019

Birds and Bees and Butterflies

Saturday Critters and I'd Rather Be Birdin'.

Summer is in full swing in Virginia and flowers and pollinators can be found if you look for them. Butterflies can be elusive unless you find their favorite flowers on a sunny day.

These pictures are from the Front Royal area. The photo below of purple buddleia blossoms shows butterflies plus a Japanese beetle, a non-native species that is considered a pest for the way it chews up valuable plants.


The numbers of bees has declined and people are appreciating them more. We need their work as pollinators in order for our fruit-bearing plants to be productive. Here we see a couple of bees on milkweed blooms. Milkweed is also a favorite plant of butterflies.

The beehives are at Shenandoah River State Park.


"To make honey, a worker bee flies to a flower and extracts watery nectar using her straw-like tongue. Bees forage 20 or more times a day and can carry up to 50% of their body weight. 

The bee returns the nectar to the hive in her honey stomach. (The pollen bees need for food is carried on the back of their fuzzy legs.)"


These last two pictures are a bit confusing. I believe there were two Carolina wrens on the log, and I thought they were mating. I took the last picture moments after the one above it, believing there were still two birds in the image. When I reviewed the image, however, I counted three birds. One is airborne and blurred, one is sitting on the log, but there is a third one apparently diving toward the log (at lower left).

What is he up to? Photobombing? I don't know because it happened quickly and I was behind the viewfinder, trying to catch the action.


10 comments:

  1. I do worry about the loss of many natural creatures, obvious ones like birds, but also less obvious but essential ones like bees. As humans we carry a lot of responsibility to look after the Earth.

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  2. Loss of habitat & industrial waste are just a couple that are taking away from nature.
    As always thanks for sharing your photos & expertise with us at I'd Rather B Birdin' this week.

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  3. Hello, the bee hives are always nice to see. I love the cute wrens, I think they like to spread their wings and lay flat in the sunshine. I have seen them do it on my deck. Beautiful collection of butterflies. Thank you for linking up your post today. Thanks also for all your visits and past comments! Happy Saturday, enjoy your day and weekend.

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  4. Lovely to see bees foraging, and enjoying milkweed along with butterflies...and it seems so sad that we humans have such little regard for the tiny creatures which help balance the dance of nature.

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  5. Love the wrens, too much going on their to figure out what they were up to.

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  6. I love to see the bees "at work". I am very sad because here, in Italy, they are always less for the pesticides and the loss of habitat.

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  7. Beautiful.
    www.rsrue.blogspot.com

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  8. You do wonder with those last two shots.

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  9. I like seeing the bees on the flowers.

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