Our Birds and Bees. Help Are We Losing Our Bees?The Love of Nature.
Birds and The Bees in our yard.
Our yard is loaded with flowers, bees and birds. We enjoy all of them. This hub is all about the birds and the bees in our yard with my photos. Hope you enjoy.
There are pumpkins growing in our garden. The bees love the flowers they're always inside the blossoms.
They say our whole colonies of bees are disappearing, but no one seems to have the answer to what's happening to the bee. They call it Colony Collapse Disorder. Another threat to bees is the small hive beetle, (Aethina tumida) and a virus is also killing bees. I watched a television show on the Science Channel called What's Killing Our Bees? It was very interesting.
Haagan Dazs says with bee population disappearing will result in fewer flavors and higher prices.
Oh my, we can't let this happen!
Really when I take pictures of the bees in our yard I don't know if I'm taking a picture of a honeybee or bumblebee. We do have very big bumble bees those I know, but others forget it.
I worry about the spraying of the fields across from us. They spray it with a crop duster how many of the bees are being killed from the spraying. I went outside yesterday to take my little dog for a walk and saw the plane coming. I went back in the house and watch them spray and saw the spray blow into my side of the road. The smell is awful it comes right into my house even though I close the windows.
I was watching Amazing Race was very surprised how they collected honey in Africa. The bees were African Bees (Killer Bees). I never thought of killer bees as making honey. All I've ever heard about them is how they attack people.
Most of my photos on here of the flowers have bees of some kind in them.
Flower with a bee
GRAPES
Grape Growers.
Grape growers say bees ruin the grapes. We have only two grapevines and I have never noticed any problem with bees. Our grapes are concord grapes. The birds love the grapes and fly into the vine to eat the grapes.
Some of the flowers the birds and bees fly around.
This flower is a golden glow. I've had the flowers since my mother-in-law gave them to me years ago. Honey bees are attracted to brightly colored, sweet-smelling flowers. They love the flower garden and love the vegetable flowers.
Flowers will disappear as bees disappear, so will many naturally grown fruits and vegetables. As many as 90 major crops.
Cotton is pollinated by bees. Some medicines are plants are pollinated by bees.
Some animals rely on certain plants without bees we would lose not just plants but animals. Cows rely on bees pollinating the foods they eat.
I hope the problem is found soon. We don't kill bees, in fact, we don't even kill hornets even though they can be nasty little things.
We would lose so much without our bees.
Zucchini
Zucchini needs bees.
As you can read in the link above bees are a pest in vineyards. Growers want to use an insecticide to get rid of them. Some grape growers claim they're feeding can cause damage to the grapes. Others say it's the yellow jacket which cause the most trouble. I hate to see insecticide used, but what can anyone do. Bees do not pollinate grapes which I would have thought they did. I'm sure the birds also give grape growers trouble.
The zucchini in this picture is from our garden and it does need bees. They are necessary for squash pollination.
Bald Face Hornets Nest
The hive you see is a bald-faced (also called white face) hornets hive hanging on the side of our house. It's big and these little devils are mean aggressive critters. There was a time we couldn't even be on our deck they wouldn't leave us alone. Some years they drove the hummingbirds crazy, they were always on their feeder. We would have to move the feeder away from us. We tried everything to make the hornets move on. This was all going on before they put the hive up, once the hive was up they seemed more interested in it and not so much in us.
The hive no longer has hornets in it. The hornets were here last year. I thought it was pretty and I didn't want to take it down. I heard if we leave it we won't have hornets flying around our deck because other hornets won't come around an old nest. They won't invade another hornets territory.
This is now 2014 and we haven't had hornet problem since we left the hive hanging. There are only pieces of the nest left now.
Allergies to bees
I have some allergies to bees. I was once stung by a little tiny sweat bee. It stung me on the forehead and I didn't even know it was there until my aunt told me. In the evening, my right eye had turned black and swelled, by morning the poison had gone down my face and back up and into my left eye it turned black. I started choking in the morning while I was sleeping and came flying out of the bed. We believe the poison had gone into my throat and swelled it. As soon as I stood up the choking went away. You wouldn't believe what I looked like when all this happened it was awful and scary.
I walked by a bush in our daughter's yard this year and she said, "Mom, get away from the bush it is full of sweat bees." Believe me, I got away from it.
Hornet Hive
Bats Are Pollinators.
Bats are also pollinators. We wouldn't have bananas, peaches or mangoes without bats. Bats take the nighttime to do their pollinating. They carry pollination long distances because they are migratory. I know many people wouldn't want to lose their tequila they could without bats.
We like bats because they eat mosquitoes. I love insects, birds, bats and bees, but I do not love mosquitoes. They do nothing for us but carry disease.
We put up our bat house this year. We have had it for a long time a friend gave it to us but have not had the time to get it up. This year we went through all our bird houses and fixed the ones needed fixing and put them and the bat house up.
If you have a bat house put it up if you don't have one get one. Bats are helpful little creatures.
Morning Dove
Hummingbird
Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers
Birds In Our Yard. Birds Also Pollinate.
Birds are also pollinators. They pollinate wildflowers.The pretty little hummingbirds flying around are not just beautiful, but they are pollinators.
Beautiful little Morning Dove in our backyard.
Video to the right a hummingbird going in and out of my flowers.
We also get Pileated Woodpeckers, as seen in the video below. Beautiful birds, we have lots of them around here. We also have Downy Woodpecker and Hairy Woodpecker. Once in a while we see Red Headed Woodpecker.
In the days when our kids were little, I was the so-called bird lady of the neighborhood. One night my neighbor called me. She was all upset, there was a seagull in her yard. It had hit the wires and fallen into the yard. Unusual looking seagull not like the ones we see in Burger King parking lot. It was spring, maybe this guy was just passing through.
I went out and picked the bird up put him in a box and took him home kept him warm. With all birds we've found, I would pile the kids in the car and we would take birds to the Wild Life Center so they could be taken care of the right way and then later let go.
A friend's daughter found an injured flicker. She insisted her mother bring the bird to me. She was sure I could save it. I couldn't, it's injuries were so bad and they often go into shock and then will die.
Our son not long ago called us because baby ravens had fallen out of the nest at his house. He had to leave and couldn't help them so Mom and Dad had to. We found two alive. The rest of the chicks were dead. They had fallen a long distance out of the tree. Eagles will get into the nest where baby ravens are and pull the nest apart trying to get at the babies.
I've been berated by friends for taking the time to run animals to the center. The reasons because it was too far, it took up my time, the animal isn't worth it on and on. I'll still do it my way.
My brother-in-law had this hornets nest in his. A hornets nest is just a piece of art. Don't you think?
If You Come Into My Yard You Are Protected, Bird, Bugs,Bees, Bats, Hornets, Wildlife, And Pets.
Woodpeckers
I believe this is a Hairy Woodpecker and a Downy Woodpecker on our feeder. Downy is smaller and has a short bill. Hairy has a longer pointed bill.
We have had the Hairy Woodpecker here all winter, but I have not seen a Downy yet this year.
They will stay through the winter and summer. They love to pick around in the trees after bugs and whatever they can find to eat.
Below is the Pileated Woodpecker on our feeder.
Please, check out my other bird hubs. We get lots of different birds in the yard.
Snow Birds and Turkeys in the meadow.
Can you see the bee in the top pink flower?
Copyright © 2015 moonlake
All About The Birds and The Bees