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  • Author Author: ralphjy
  • Date Created: Date Created
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Premature Spring in Oregon 2026

ralphjy

We've had a pretty mild winter so far in the greater Portland area.  We haven't had any snow yet in the Willamette Valley and our local snowpack in the Mt. Hood area is about 30% of normal.  This week we've had a couple of days of record high daytime temperatures in the low 60's (F).

I was walking with my grandson and 2 granddogs and we noticed lots of bee activity in a patch of Heather (at least that's what my wife calls it).  Mostly Honeybees and Bumblebees, also a few others that I couldn't identify.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any bee pictures because I had a bag of dog poop in one hand and was trying to control the dogs with the other.

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It got me thinking about  and site preparation for BeeBox.  I'm looking forward to learning about how his BeeBox does this season.

When we got home I took a look at the only two plants (Hellebores and Camelias) that are currently blooming in our yard and found that we also are having bee activity.  The bees weren't very cooperative so I didn't get any good closeup pics like Dave gets.

Older granddog

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Good eye test to see if you can spot the honeybee in the next two pics.  The third pic is of a bee that I can't identify.  And I wasn't able to get a pic of the one bumblebee that I saw.

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It looks like we will be back to colder and wetter weather next week.  I am hopeful for a good bee season this spring and summer.

  • in reply to ralphjy

    That is really cool, I had no idea there was skiing in Hawaii!

  • in reply to ralphjy

    That sounds like a really useful project for better understanding of the bee population over time.

    I noticed last year that there were hardly any Tree Bumblebees visiting. They appear to have been replaced by the Common Carder Bumblebee.

    I was reading that the milder winters here are starting to cause some bumblebees not to enter hibernation, which could be a real issue due to the general lack of food sources during the winter months. Hence why I have started planting the Hellebores and Heathers.

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    I had done a pollinator population monitor on Hackster in 3Q last year.  It was basically a time lapse AI camera running FOMO to count bee types.  I had some accuracy issues due to hardware limitations and also was too late in the year to acquire enough data for good model training.  I was using a Xiao ESP32S3 Sense with an OV2640 camera.  I now have OV3660 and OV5640 (auto-focus) cameras that I can use with the Xiao ESP32S3 Sense, so I'd like to try improving that project.  Or if that doesn't work, trying a Grove Vision AI V2 that I also have.

    Nothing planned for summer garden improvements, but it's still early Slight smile.  I'd like to improve planting for the colder weather later.  I've been surprised with how early in the year bees are out.

  • Are you planning on making any improvements to the garden this year ? Any garden tech projects ?

    I picked up some thicker bamboo canes at the weekend to have another go at training some of the Salvia plants vertically to try and get them to knit into the bottom of the old Hawthorn hedge. They will grow to about 4 foot tall if well enough supported until established. Running out of horizontal space so need to expand vertically Slight smile

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    The Shark Chase Tank swarm. Each Tank with a BLE switch to target Ducks or Deer ay my command. 

    I'd better get busy with that object detection training. 

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