Category: Mason Bees and Phragmites reed-grass tubes

Mason Bees.. The best pollinator for spring and early summer pollination of your fruit trees.

Kiwi Fruit Harvest

Picked the  Kiwi fruit today to move in to the refrigerator so they will last through the winter.

Western tiger swallowtails (Papilio rutulus) abundant this week.

I can’t recall seeing so many Tiger swallowtails around the yard in other years as we are seeing this year.
Our non-invasive but introduced butterfly bush Bidulphia sp. is particularly attractive to them.

tigswalltail
Western tiger swallowtail (Papilio rutulus)

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  • Of particular interest is the backward flying mating dance– one individual 25 cm above and ahead of the other… Several times I have watched these displays go on for up to 10 minutes.
  • The other interesting observation was the speed which they insert the proboscis into florets repetitively. You can see that by clicking on the following short video clip:
    • The only competition for nectar appears to be the Anna’s Hummingbird.
      hummingbirdsilou

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Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Papilionidae
Genus: Papilio
Species: P. rutulus

Papilio rutulus Lucas, 1852

Eastern Yellow jacket wasp : Vespula pensylvanica

I had not seen this very large wasp until today. Now I realize it is an Eastern Yellow-jacket wasp (Vespula pensylvanica). At this time of years , the queen, the only one to survive the winter, emerges from her overwintering spot and starts to organize for establishing a colony.

easternyellowjacket-wasp

An Easter yellow-jacket wasp seeking nectar in a rhododendron
An Easter yellow-jacket wasp seeking nectar in a rhododendron

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Suborder: Apocrita
Family: Vespidae
Genus: Vespula
Subgenus: (Paravespula)
Species: V. pensylvanica
Binomial name
Vespula pensylvanica Saussure, 1857