Cuckoo vs Cuckoo... the cuckooning? A Nomada bee (perhaps a male, from the looks of the slightly longer sniffing sticks) flies by a Coelioxys bee female (easy to tell from the one large spike on the abdomen vs several small ones males have). [Alameda, CA 6-7-25] #bees #nativebees

Agapostemon are terrible at mating (they still get it done - must be sheer numbers), but they are very, very thorough foragers. [Alameda, CA 10-3-25] #bees #nativebees

When you’re just trying to groom but it’s a rough neighborhood. Presented in scientifically applied SloMoVision. [Leafcutter male aka Mittens vs Agapostemon subtilior male, Alameda, CA 10-7-25] #bees #nativebees

It’s surprising how seldom I see European wool carder bees mating considering how ubiquitous they are around here. But I have seen it more often than usual this year. [Alameda, CA 10-5-25] #bees #nativebees

Sometimes it is your larvae that are the soil predator. Sometimes another relentless soil predator decides to hunt you and it’s quite the nuisance. Stiletto fly vs ant: the reckoning. [Alameda, CA 10-3-25] #flies #diptera #entomology #ants

I was away out of state for a few weeks (and the end of Summer bee season), but I was greeted by a few holdouts when I got back, like this Western Leaf Cutter female, still getting it done with her one remaining sniffing stick. [Alameda, CA 9-30-25] #bees #nativebees

I love dragonflies, even though it is always so frustrating trying to photograph them. But eventually with enough patience you can catch fun scenes like "Variegated Meadowhawk and Flame Skimmer are friends". [Alameda, CA 9-14-25] #dragonfly #dragonflies

Speaking of the end of Longhorn bee season, here is the most impressively elderly male I've yet seen. An amazing amount of hair loss considering they never go into nests, which is how females lose their hairs (hole/tunnel friction). [Alameda, CA 8-16-25] #bees #nativebees

#bees #bumblebees #nativebees

The species identity of these gray Andrena bees that reliably fill the local California Poppies every year in April remains a head-scratcher. Double head-scratcher, according to this one. [Alameda, CA 4-26-25] #bees #nativebees

Like other bee nerds around here, I have had unusually few Hylaeus bee sightings this year. There’s no obvious explanation so far. And yes, that’s a Agapostemon subtilior flyby - many sightings of them this year, as usual. [Alameda, CA 9-9-25] #bees #nativebees

Usually I see wasps digging nests or going into an existing nest, so it was a fun surprise to see this Sphex lucae engaging in some very different nest related work. [Alameda, CA 9-8-25] #entomology #wasps

Ceratina small carpenter bee mating is a more complicated activity than I realized before recording this. Many bees do antenna stroking but note he’s also grabbed her back legs with his and is rapidly stroking them with his middle legs. A lot to keep track of. [Oakland, CA 9-1-25] #bees #nativebees

"Aw, Damselflies are so delicate and charming!" "You mean the beasts of the hunt that snatch you from mid-air and eat you alive head first?" "...that's the ones." [Oakland, CA 8-30-25] #entomology #macro #odonata

The smallest bees also have appropriately proportioned infinitesimal phoretic mites. Look closely at this male Hylaeus bee's left eye. No verdict on whether the mites get shinier as they get smaller. This one is very shiny. [Oakland, CA 7-6-25] #bees #nativebees

Meanwhile on the island we are also winding down to a few elderly males and the occasional female Longhorn bee. You can see this veteran’s age from all the hair loss and his ragged wing edges. [Alameda, CA 8-28-25] #bees #nativebees

Longhorn season is winding down. Just one foraging female in the Cosmo patch and one in the sunflower patch this morning on my walk to work. [Berkeley, CA 8-27-25] #bees #nativebees

“He’s right behind me, isn’t he?” Yes, these are crappy phone photos, but just hum the Jaws musical cue and think of it as cinéma vérité. [Patrolling Western Leafcutter male creeping up on Melissodes longhorn female bee. Alameda, CA 8-25-25] #bees #nativebees

Forever jealous of bees' vastly superior back-scratching capabilities. [Lasioglossum kincaidii, Alameda, CA 8-16-25] #bees #nativebees

Digging a nest in soft sand is pretty close to trying to make a hole in water, so it’s not a surprise Bembix wasps dig lightning fast and keep testing dozens of spots before they’re satisfied. [Alameda, CA 8-16-25] #entomology #wasps

A blister beetle in the genus Nemognatha. The name means "thread jaw" because of that long nectar-drinking tube. They lay eggs on flower heads, then the larvae grab onto the legs of visiting bees and eat everything in their nests. [Alameda, CA 8-16-25] #beetles #bees #nativebees

Bee taxonomy treatises tell you “You see them curling, they Halictus”. I don’t consciously use that diagnostic but this Halictus tripartitus provided a textbook performance. They do love curling. (Not the sport. That I know of.) [Alameda, CA 8-15-25] #bees #nativebees

This unusually friendly male Foothill Carpenter Bee helpfully cooperated to provide these unusually close and clear views of nectar robbing. [Alameda, CA 5-23-25] #bees #nativebees

Just two remaining male longhorn bees at the Cosmo patch on my walk to work this morning. [Berkeley, CA 8-13-25] #bees #nativebees

Tree Aeonium is popular with gardeners and native bees, especially when flowering while hardly anything else does. When even it is mostly spent, if you look closely, you'll see enterprising bees trying to pry open closed flower buds... [Alameda, CA 6-6-25] #bees #nativebees

"Sure, carrying pollen on your legs is fine and all but hear me out-" [Lasioglossum kincaidii, Alameda, CA 5-10-25] #bees #nativebees

Speaking of Phacelia, navigating those extra long filaments to harvest the anthers is also a jungle for mid-sized bees, like this Agapostemon subtilior. [Alameda, CA 5-4-25] #bees #nativebees

Their season is over now, but here's a flashback to the entertainment the Phacelia Jungle provides every year. When you're small enough going up the filaments to get to the anthers is like climbing tree trunks, the this Dialictus bee story. [Alameda, CA 6-7-25] #bees #nativebees

Still Very Sure Wasps Pollinate, The Sequel. Featuring Philanthus Bee Wolf and Oxybelus Uniglumis, the fly huntress. All pollinators love buckwheat (well, maybe not hummingbirds and bats), but it's especially great for wasp watching. [Alameda, CA 6-28-2025] #entomology #macro #wasps #pollinators

Silent movie getting played back at the wrong frame rate? Nope, this is her actual foraging speed. Agapostemon subtilior don’t play around. [Alameda, CA 7-31-25] #bees #nativebees

While we are doing morning bee news coverage, concluding with this male who suspects his brothers have gone soft, glamping in their cushy complete flowers. He’s more of a sleeping under a tarp on a string camping type. [Melissodes male, Berkeley, CA 7-30-25] #bees #nativebees

Also notable from this morning, these two little runts of the litter, warranting highly scientific thumbparisons. I managed to restrain myself from putting them on my thumb - they’re small, they needed their sleep. [Melissodes male bees, Berkeley, CA 7-30-25] #bees #nativebees

On my walk to work this morning, still lots of sleeping longhorn males in their usual spot. And that one female that likes overnighting with her brothers is still at it. [Berkeley, CA 7-30-25] #bees #nativebees

Sometimes there are so few plants in bloom that you get bee traffic jams. Still, these three did not panic, especially that Agapostemon casually shooing away the much larger Leafcutter while the little Carpenter hovered, waiting her turn. [Alameda, CA 6-28-25] #bees #nativebees

Halictus tripartitus males are so rare in Southern California that there's a theory the females must be reproducing by parthenogenesis. We do see them regularly up here, but this yard had so many that they had to share flowers. Twins! [Alameda, CA 5-25-25] #bees #nativebees

I almost never see bees holding onto plant stems with their mandibles to sleep because I go looking for them when they’re most active. But here is a Nomada bee holding onto a Grindelia petal when the afternoon turned windier and chillier than expected. [Alameda, CA 7-20-25] #bees #nativebees

When you're minding your own business and suddenly Godzilla rolls through town. I'm pretty sure that was just the downwash from his wings that blew her over. [Small Carpenter bee female vs male Western Leafcutter bee on turf patrol, Alameda, CA 7-12-25] #bees #nativebees

Sure, having extra long sniffing sticks sounds like tons of fun, but then it gets windy, and suddenly it’s more antennas, more problems as they get batted around. [Halictus tripartitus male, Alameda, CA 7-20-25] #bees #nativebees

Caught in the open when the day rapidly got colder: the this Foothill Carpenter Bee story. The clip is at normal speed - the sniffing sticks are moving in slow motion. [Alameda, CA 7-20-25] #bees #nativebees

In Local Longhorn News (TM), the Redflower Buckwheat Patrol was still napping this morning when I walked by at almost 10am. (Alameda, CA 7-17-25] #bees #nativebees

Two quartets of sleeping Longhorns at the Cosmo patch on my walk to work this morning. And a very unusual sight: among the many males, a single female sleeping on a flower like her brothers instead of in her nest. [Berkeley, CA 7-16-25] #bees #nativebees

When I try to explain why the distinctive eye and head shape immediately gives away small carpenter bees even at a distance, photos sometimes poorly convey it. This clip seems more helpful. Note the flat cut off bottom of the face. [Alameda, CA 7-6-25] #bees #nativebees

This was a great sighting. An endangered Crotch's Bumble Bee, Bombus crotchii. I've never seen one before. On attached iNaturalist map, there I am in the middle of a large empty area nowhere close to the other reported ones. [Alameda, CA 7-12-25] #bees #nativebees #bumblebees

This enterprising male Longhorn bee didn’t just claim a patch of turf to defend - he has a House Standard to go with it! “Do you have a flag?” [Alameda, CA 7-11-25] #bees #nativebees

This was a fun sighting from back in April - nectar pouring down California Flannelbush flowers attracting many little Oxybelus uniglumis waps drinking from the streams. [Alameda, CA 4-28-25] #entomology #wasps

Occasional reminder of how small male Hylaeus masked bees can be. This fellow isn’t the smallest I’ve seen recently but he is handily on my phone already… [Alameda, CA 7-6-25] #bees #nativebees

The neighborhood Longhorn bees are particularly clustery this evening. 😴 [Alameda, CA 7-7-25] #bees #nativebees

Cistanthe grandiflora, aka rock purslane isn’t from around here, but native bees love it. Still, it’s not common to see three Halictus tripartitus together having a festive time in one flower like this. [Alameda, CA 7-5-25] #bees #nativebees

Only a bit of bee whisperer exertion required. The afternoon wind is just cold enough that most native bees slowed down and don’t mind a warm perch. Still couldn’t convince a female leaf cutter to stop. They just don’t have it in them. [Alameda, CA 7-3-25] #bees #nativebees

Sequel to this morning: on my way back to the train, settling in for the evening. [Berkeley, CA 7-2-2025] #bees #nativebees