Monitoring Bees in Oregon 2025

RE: Monitoring Bees in Oregon 2025

beacon_dave — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 18:10:11 GMT

Today's garden visitor here is an elephant hawk moth caterpillar

One interesting feature is its self-defence mechanism. If threatened, it retracts its snout and puffs up its head to make it look more snake-like in an attempt to ward off predators.

Although I've seen a few of these caterpillars in the garden, I've never seen the parent moth that actually lays the eggs.
Which is strange as a) it's pretty big and b) it's bright pink in colour. Must only work at night.

It's currently defoliating one of my Fuchsia shrubs.

RE: Monitoring Bees in Oregon 2025

beacon_dave — Fri, 11 Jul 2025 20:41:27 GMT

It's Friday folks... Bee Happy [emoticon:a2a6a15ca6b94f3599c360d19eb0d71a]

Almost got a proboscis shot in a couple of them

After a bit of a slow start, the number of visitors are now starting to look better again.

RE: Monitoring Bees in Oregon 2025

beacon_dave — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 15:21:07 GMT

The Allium Sphaerocephalon have started to flower here and the Buff Tails are starting to take an interest in them.

I took a few snapshots yesterday to share [emoticon:a2a6a15ca6b94f3599c360d19eb0d71a][emoticon:a2a6a15ca6b94f3599c360d19eb0d71a][emoticon:a2a6a15ca6b94f3599c360d19eb0d71a]

RE: Monitoring Bees in Oregon 2025

beacon_dave — Fri, 23 May 2025 20:05:15 GMT

The latest BeeBox design - version 4

https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/sci-tech/research/beebox/

RE: Monitoring Bees in Oregon 2025

beacon_dave — Fri, 02 May 2025 19:54:44 GMT

Just spotted a new variety of bee visiting the front garden here. Looks like a 'Common Carder'. It looks a perfect fit to the flowers of the Salvias and has a long enough proboscis to reach the nectar without need to to nectar rob through the side of the petals like the 'Buff Tail's have to do. Should get a higher rate of pollination this way.

Purple ball Alliums are in flower (4 weeks earlier than last year) and first rose is in flower (8 weeks earlier than last year). New Hellebores are flowering as well, not sure if they are 6 months late or 6 months early though [emoticon:db2e98b6d4d6460c8802c63379d79040].

RE: Monitoring Bees in Oregon 2025

DAB — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 19:28:47 GMT

Yes, bees are so important.

Glad to see you are taking an active role in trying to save them.

RE: Monitoring Bees in Oregon 2025

mp2100 — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 01:07:08 GMT

If it makes you feel any better, the bird in the video looks like a chickadee. AFAIK, they are vegitarian, I feed them sunflower seeds, and they’re happy. I do not think a chckadee would eat bees. It must have just been curious.

But of course there are plenty of carnivore birds out there. Some sort of screen as beacon_dave suggests is a good idea.

RE: Monitoring Bees in Oregon 2025

kmikemoo — Sun, 13 Apr 2025 16:18:37 GMT

[mention:dc11ece8204f479e8dce2a47a33b20d3:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] Good on you for continuing to try to save the bees. We've tried all sorts of different flowers for the bees, but with marginal success - except for the sunflowers. So... we're doubling down on the sunflowers this year. We have some of last years seeds. Short ones will go in the front of the house and the crazy tall ones will go on the side of the house and in the back yard. They get tall enough that I use the rain gutters to stabilize them.

RE: Monitoring Bees in Oregon 2025

beacon_dave — Sun, 13 Apr 2025 09:31:30 GMT

That KGW link isn't working for me, just redirects to their YouTube channel home.

I think this is the video report though:

Oregon beekeepers struggling after major bee colony losses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qi49r5AXHw

RE: Monitoring Bees in Oregon 2025

beacon_dave — Sat, 12 Apr 2025 22:03:23 GMT

If the tubes were recessed then you could have a wire mesh over the front to keep the beaks from reaching the ends of the tubes. Either that or have the mesh on stand-offs.

I'm seeing a bit more bumble bee activity here although garden is still a bit behind. Had a couple of weeks of warm and sunny weather here. The Muscari have finished flowering and some of the Bluebells have now taken over. The ball Alliums are a bit behind this year though, lots of low level leaf on show but few vertical shoots. The Salvia appear to have survived winter and are starting to fill out with new leaf now, so hopefully their flowers aren't too far off.

I've also moved 7 pots of young Salvia out of the house into the back garden next to the new Hellebores to reinforce the dining experience and have just pricked out the last 12 over-winter seedlings, which all going well should be ready to join them later on in the year.