The Birds and The Bees.

Our yard is loaded with flowers, bees and birds. We enjoy all of them.

Pumpkins growing in our garden the bees love the flowers. Pretty little bee in the pumpkin flower.

They say our 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).

Haagan Dazs says with bee population disappearing will result in fewer flavors and higher prices.

Oh my, we can't let that happen!

Really when I take pictures of the bees in our yard I don't know if I'm taking a picture of a honey bee or bumble bee. We do have very big bumble bees those I know, but others forget it.

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 everyone ever talks about when they talk about killer bees is how they attack people.

Wildlife is all around us.

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 do many naturally grown fruits and vegetables. As many as 90 major crops.

I hope the problem is found soon. We don't kill bees in fact we don't even kill hornets and they can be nasty little things.

I have a little 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 chocking 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 chocking went away. You wouldn't believe what I looked like when all this happened it was awful and scary.

The hive you see is a bald-faced (also called white face or yellow jacket) hornets hive hanging on the side of our house. It's big and these little devils are mean. 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. They were here last year. I thought it was pretty and I didn't want to it take down. I heard if we leave it we won't have hornets flying around our deck.

This is now 2012 and we haven't had hornet problem since we left the hive hanging. There are only pieces of it left now.

Grape growers say that bees ruin the grapes. We have only two grapevines and I have never noticed any problem with bees. Our grapes are concord grapes.

As you can read in the link above bees are a pest in vine yards. 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 that 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.

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 video below. Beautiful birds, we have lots of them around here. We also have Downy Woodpecker and Hairy Woodpecker. Once in awhile 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 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 to far, it took up my time, the animal isn't worth it on and on. I'll still do it my way.

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.

Their 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.

The Birds and The Bees