beespeaker
LightNews LightNews
banner
loriweidenhammer.ca
beespeaker
@loriweidenhammer.ca
650 followers 370 following 610 posts
Writer, artist, and advocate for native bees in British Columbia. Author of the revised edition of Victory Gardens for Bees: A DIY Guide for Saving the Bees.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by beespeaker
tenoaks6.bsky.social
11.11.11
May we defend our peace with the same courage of those whom we remember today🇨🇦❤️

#RemembranceDay #Honour #Courage #Canada #LestWeForget #Gratitude #TrueNorthStrong&Free
A red poppy in a sunlit meadow
November 11, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Reposted by beespeaker
frwildflowers.bsky.social
Opuntia polyacantha var. hystricina, our Porcupine Pricklypear, blooming at Bridgeport in the Dominguez Canyon area #nativeplants

#FallBackFlowers #FallBack to May 11 🌿
Intensely pink cactus flower with numerous creamy anthers
November 11, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Reposted by beespeaker
fisherspeaks.bsky.social
Snow Buntings do not need to wait for the white stuff to time their southern journey. The first few have arrived to blend in nicely with our autumn brown landscapes. #birds #Ab
A Snow Bunting, a songbird with white black and brown plumage perches on a barbed wire.
November 11, 2025 at 4:45 PM
loriweidenhammer.ca
Can you ID the taxidermy from the Kettle Valley?
November 4, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Reposted by beespeaker
nicrodemo.bsky.social
Too warm to buzz? Check out our newest paper on how warming temperatures affect bee buzzes in the Arctic. Well done to Charlie and Guadalupe and other coauthors for this nice study in the Swedish Arctic! @hfspo.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Increasing temperatures affect thoracic muscle performance in Arctic bumblebees - Nature Communications
Increasing temperatures threaten cold-adapted pollinators such as Arctic bumblebees by disrupting their physiology. This study found that thorax acceleration during non-flight vibrations peaks at 25 °...
www.nature.com
November 3, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Reposted by beespeaker
tjalamont.bsky.social
Green Lynx Spider (Peucetia viridans), N Carolina. These spiders are ambush predators that don't catch prey in a web - but look closely and you'll see that she's spun a silk scaffold to help her cling to the leaf (an especially good idea given that she's on a carnivorous pitcher plant). 🐙🌿 #bugsky
A closeup photo of a lime-green spider with long, spiny, dark-banded legs, sitting atop a rain-dappled, lime-green leaf.
November 2, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Reposted by beespeaker
jtkindt.bsky.social
In late fall, male dark-winged sweat #bees (Lasioglossum fuscipenne) emerge in large numbers to loiter on the asters and hope to get lucky like this one did. (Females can be found in low numbers through spring and summer; anyone know about their life cycle?)

#insects #bugsky #macrophotography
Dark female bee with dark wings, wide orangish hair bands on abdomen and brush of reddish hair on rear leg, on small daisy-like flower, mounted by male bee, head out of focus, long antennae stretched back over head, dark wings, abdomen with thin white hair bands. These are actually about to separate after (I assume) copulation, which I didn’t catch on camera.
November 2, 2025 at 4:09 PM
loriweidenhammer.ca
Having fun hanging with the Wednesday art club at The Rock Creek Riverside Centre. #rockcreekbc
October 29, 2025 at 11:56 PM
Reposted by beespeaker
jhmsparky.bsky.social
Reskeeting for #BirdOfTheDay pairs
jhmsparky.bsky.social Jack Maynard(he/him) @jhmsparky.bsky.social · Sep 23
These Pygmy Nuthatches visited our campsite's water spigot this morning at Tumalo State Park, Deschutes County, Oregon #birding
Two Nuthatches visit a spigot for water
October 28, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by beespeaker
bug-gwen.bsky.social
Let's start Monday with some whimsy. These delightful grasshoppers (possibly also katydids?) are from a water jar created by Makuzu Kōzan in 1870. To see full size images: www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...
Detail of the water pot decoration. Grasshoppers carrying flowers are also accompanying a palanquin, used to carry... presumably high ranking lady grasshoppers. A couple might also be katydids based on antennae length, but let's not get uptight about imaginary anthropomorphized bugs, eh? The little freshwater pot, with a wooden top. This side shows more grasshoppers (possibly a katydid) carrying fruit and flowers as they march along on their hind legs.
October 27, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Reposted by beespeaker
patnad.bsky.social
Absolutely gobsmacked to witness massive raptor migration near Panama City this morning. Probably the most birds I've ever seen in my life! The video doesn't do it justice, there were clouds of them moving through. Nature is amazing. #birds #flyways
October 24, 2025 at 5:25 PM
loriweidenhammer.ca
Today I was invited at the last minute to do a 15 min presentation to the Bridesville Women's Institute during their lunch. I did a talk pitching that doing 10 minutes of citizen science a day is good for your mind, body and soul. Lovely group of women!
Picture of Melissodes bimatris on my hand.
October 20, 2025 at 8:47 PM
loriweidenhammer.ca
A friendly reminder to hug a tree today. If it's Ponderosa pine, you must inhale its gorgeous butterscotch scent!
The textured surface of Ponderosa pine tree bark.
October 19, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Reposted by beespeaker
jbtheexplorer.bsky.social
Just a reminder: Don't cut your stems to the ground! Bees need them! I do cut stems back a bit, but I leave them standing around 1' to 2' tall. In spring, bees will lay eggs in them. I took these photos a few years back on a warm spring day.

#nativeplants #bees #nativegarden #pollinators
A small carpenter bee realizing that the hollow stem it was intending on entering is already occupied. Bee head sticking out of a hollow stem. Small bee resting on an old stem.
October 13, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Reposted by beespeaker
tjalamont.bsky.social
For #Arachtober, here is a spider that's not a spider. It's Petrophila jaliscalis, a jumping-spider-mimicking moth - see the face-on spider pattern, with orange legs and sparkly dark eyes? I love finding these - I think they breed in my small goldfish pond, because the caterpillars are aquatic. 🌿🐙
A macro photo of a moth, seen from the side, on brown bark. The moth has white wings with lots of dark speckles, and a pattern of four orange vertical stripes, plus a row of dark spots above, with reflective scales in the centers. The effect creates a pattern that looks like a jumping spider seen face-on; the orange stripes mimic legs, and the dark spots mimic a jumping spider's row of large eyes.
October 13, 2025 at 7:24 PM
loriweidenhammer.ca
I am grateful for the beautiful little pears given to me by my neighbour. I am making ginger cardamom pear butter with them today. Grating the pears and stirring the bubbling pot is a sweet, soulful meditation. What are your favourite pear recipes?
A grouping of pears on a table with a mason jar.
October 13, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Reposted by beespeaker
bugsrule.bsky.social
Don't miss UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seminar by #ucdavis researcher Felicity Muth. Seminar on "What Are Bees Thinking? Cognition in Captive and Wild Bumble Bees" at 12:10 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 15, 122 Briggs Hall. Also on Zoom.

ucanr.edu/blog/bug-squ...
October 13, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Reposted by beespeaker
grays.art
Female Two-spotted longhorn bee
(Melissodes bimaculatus)

explored a vacant lot by the sea between two large homes in Cape Coral a few days ago, overcast & rainy, startled a burrowing owl & found a familiar subject.

#macroMonday #EastCoastKin #macroPhotography #macro #photography #pollinators #bees
Dangling from her mandibles by a blade of grass.
October 13, 2025 at 4:41 AM
Reposted by beespeaker
mrussellphoto.bsky.social
#SilentSunday
A night photograph of a viewing tower next to a marsh, with almost the entire sky lit up by green and red aurora borealis. I found this more remarkable as I was facing south, and even the light pollution from Vancouver didn't do much to diminish the light show.
October 12, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Reposted by beespeaker
burrowingowl.bsky.social
Moist owlettes. 🪶
Two burrowing owls in the rain. The one on the left is facing away from the camera and is looking back over his shoulder. The one on the right is in profile and is shaking water off his back.
October 12, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Reposted by beespeaker
gettoknownature.bsky.social
Spring peepers battling! Teeny tiny froglets! A great froggie soundtrack! Because frogs seem to be having a moment here in the US.

#herps 🌿 #frogs
My Favorite Frog and Toad Encounters
YouTube video by Get To Know Nature
m.youtube.com
October 11, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Reposted by beespeaker
burrowingowl.bsky.social
New burrowing owl behavior for me today-- taking a bath in the rain! So cool! 🪶
October 10, 2025 at 12:58 AM
Reposted by beespeaker
nematode.bsky.social
Lots of these in the garden rn. They love fennel!
Yellow and green and black swallowtail caterpillar on frilly fennel stalk
October 4, 2025 at 10:20 AM
Reposted by beespeaker
scottzona.bsky.social
In the 1980s, E. Stiles hypothesized that plants advertise fruit with a contrasting foliar “flag.” I’ve seen this phenomenon in cultivated Berberis, like this B. aquifolium (📷: Alicia CCBYNC4). Some experiments support the hypothesis; some don’t. 🤷‍♂️ #dispersal #Berberidaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱
Photo of leafy shoots bearing blue berries. A leaf subtending a cluster of berries has turned bright coppery red.
October 7, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Reposted by beespeaker
crawlieswithcri.bsky.social
🚨 Floof Peep Alert! 🚨

#birds #becurious 🪶
photo of an american goldfinch in winter plumage sitting on a small maple branch with one green but just beginning to turn yellow leaf to their left. the finch is facing the camera and their feathers are floofed out.
October 7, 2025 at 11:46 PM