Bee Watching

 

I've been watching the carpenter bees.  I occasionally see them checking out the house.  Carpenter bees excavate a perfect (as though it were made with a drill) round hole in wood to lay their eggs.  They will use a dead tree or a building for their nests.  We've been keeping up with the painting and so haven't had a problem with them nesting in the house.

 

  A carpenter bee looks a lot like a bumble bee, but carpenter bees have a bare, shiny black abdomen instead of a fuzzy one like a bumble.  

The carpenter bees have been enjoying the flowering sage. Their robust bodies and large size make it easy for them to reach the nectaries in the back of the flower--they're strong enough to simply part the petals.

 A honeybee needs to crawl almost all the way in to get to the good stuff.

 I've also seen the the carpenters feeding on columbine.  The nectaries are in the back of the flower spur.

 The carpenter bee pierces the end of the spur to get to the nectar.  Since this technique bypasses the flower stamens, I don't see any advantage to the columbine.

It's amazing how those tiny wings keep the bees aloft.