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wild-matters.bsky.social
Wild Matters
@wild-matters.bsky.social
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wild-matters.bsky.social
The local bees' entry for #stunday - think this is a digger bee on an elegant clarkia #wildflower

🌿🐙 #wildlife #pollinators #photography #gardening #nature #macro #bees #outdoors #flowers #pink
A black and white bee visits a flower with hot pink petals. The bee is holding onto some darker pink filaments as it uses its tongue to extract nectar. The bee has large black eyes and is covered with silvery hair on its head, thorax, legs and parts of its abdomen. It has a black and white striped abdomen.
June 22, 2025 at 3:20 AM
wild-matters.bsky.social
The antennae of a leaf-cutter bee, because that's what the #camera wanted to take a picture of

🌿🐙 #wildlife #pollinators #photography #flowers #gardening #nature #macro #habitat #outdoors #bees #LeaveNoTraceScience
A leaf-cutter bee, with its black and white striped abdomen, black thorax and face fringed with white hair sits on the stem of a buckwheat with its tongue hanging out. Everything is slightly out-of-focus except for the antennae of the bee.
June 20, 2025 at 4:53 PM
wild-matters.bsky.social
An Andrena #bee on a #WeekYforYellow woolly sunflower

🌿🐙 #wildlife #pollinators #photography #flowers #gardening #nature #macro #habitat #outdoors #bees #alphabetchallenge
A medium-sized mostly black bee with yellow bands on its abdomen and silvery hairs on its thorax and legs faces upside-down on a panicle of yellow flowers. The bee's wings are folded over its back and its antennae are angled down toward the flower.
June 20, 2025 at 4:48 PM
wild-matters.bsky.social
#joy
...a #fuzzy little guy making the world go round

#BlueSkyArtShow 🌿🐙 #wildlife #pollinators #photography #gardening #nature #macro #outdoors #blooms #bees
This may be a leaf-cutter bee with its yellow and black striped abdomen, and black body covered in short white hairs. The bee has black legs and silvery compound eyes, and black antennae. It is facing away from us on a panicle of yellow flowers (woolly sunflower).
June 15, 2025 at 6:00 AM
wild-matters.bsky.social
Not too many #legs are required when sipping nectar.

(Another shot of the cuckoo #bee #garden visitor).

🌿🐙 #wildlife #pollinators #photography #gardening #nature #macro #habitat #outdoors #blooms #bloomscrolling
A bee with red antennae, gradient-colored compound eye, black thorax and yellow and black abdomen with mostly yellow legs uses its black tongue to sip nectar from a woolly sunflower. It's back legs are dangling off the yellow flower on which it stands
June 8, 2025 at 2:09 AM
wild-matters.bsky.social
Well prepared for #mountaineering

This #bumblebee is likely a male Bombus vosnesenskii or Bombus caliginosis, both of which have yellow faces.

🌿🐙 #wildlife #pollinators #photography #gardening #nature #macro #outdoors #bees #LeaveNoTraceScience
A large bumble bee with a black body and yellow stripe on its shoulders holds onto a flower head seemingly with one claw. Its wings are folded over its back. The bee is likely a male Bombus vosnesenskii or Bombus caliginosis, both of which have yellow faces that cannot be seen in this photograph
June 1, 2025 at 3:35 PM
wild-matters.bsky.social
#blueskyartshow #underneath

A Mexican grass-carrying wasp in the #garden visits #flowers of a woolly #sunflower. This is a pretty #small wasp.

🌿🐙 #wildlife #pollinators #photography #gardening #nature #macro #habitat #outdoors #blooms #bloomscrolling
An all-black wasp with a thread-like waste is perched on the flowers of a plant in the sunflower family. The wasp has sparse white hairs on its head, thorax and abdomen. It shows a white glint in its eye.
May 31, 2025 at 4:01 PM
wild-matters.bsky.social
A mason #bee visiting a woolly sunflower #plant

🌿🐙 #wildlife #pollinators #photography #flowers #gardening #nature #macro #habitat #outdoors #blooms #bloomscrolling #sparkly
An almost-black mason bee visits a flower of an Eriophyllum (woolly sunflower) plant. This plant has umbels consisting of multiple yellow flowers together that make sort of a mat held on a stem. Each yellow flower additionally consists of central disk flowers and ray petals. The bee, facing left has an irridescent sparkly sheen on its head and thorax. It is regarding the flower head to our left and its tongue is out.
May 30, 2025 at 5:42 PM
wild-matters.bsky.social
Never tire of blue-green mason #bees, this one again visiting a native phacelia #wildflower

🌿🐙 #wildlife #pollinators #photography #flowers #gardening #nature #macro #habitat #outdoors #blooms #bloomscrolling
A mason bee in the blue-green group visits one of the lavender flowers of a California phacelia wildflower. The phacelia has multiple lavender blossoms that fade to whitish, out of which extend long white stamens. The bee is metallic blueish green on its head, thorax and abdomen.
May 29, 2025 at 1:30 AM
wild-matters.bsky.social
A halictid (sweat) bee forages for nectar in the flower of a western thistle

🌿🐙 #wildlife #pollinators #photography #flowers #gardening #nature #macro #habitat #outdoors #blooms #bloomscrolling #bees #pink
A Halictid (sweat) bee, possibly Halictus tripartitus, makes its way foraging among a forest of hot pink stamens of a western thistle. The stamens fade from hot pink to white. The bee has a black head and antennae, and a yellow and black striped abdomen
May 29, 2025 at 1:26 AM
wild-matters.bsky.social
A black-necked stilt also from yesterday at
Bothin Marsh in Marin County, California

#birds #shorebirds #birdsseenin2025 #nature #wildlife #photography
A black-necked stilt, with black on its back, top of its head and back of its neck, wades in shallow water on its pink-looking legs. It has a white eyebrow and black bill. Its reflection is visible in the water. A black-necked stilt, with black on its back, top of its head and back of its neck, wades in shallow water on its pink-looking legs. It has a white eyebrow and black bill. It is facing to the right and wades in front of a patch of vegetation. Its reflection is visible in the water. A closeup of the black-necked stilt, with black on its back, top of its head and back of its neck. It wades in shallow water on its pink-looking legs. It has a white eyebrow and black bill. It is facing right-ward and a glint can be seen in its eye. A black-necked stilt, with black on its back, top of its head and back of its neck, wades in shallow water on its pink-looking legs. It has a white eyebrow and black bill. It is facing leftward looking at something out of the frame. Its reflection is visible in the water.
May 27, 2025 at 3:22 PM
wild-matters.bsky.social
One more of snowy #egret.
Today at Bothin Marsh in Marin County, California

#birds #birdsseenin2025 #nature #wildlife #photography #shorebirds
A snowy egret stands in shallow water facing away from us. We can't see its face; the tip of its bill is held just above the water as it looks for something to eat under the surface.
May 27, 2025 at 4:05 AM
wild-matters.bsky.social
This snowy #egret showed me how it's done today in Bothin Marsh Preserve in Marin County, California

#birds #shorebirds #birdsseenin2025 #nature #wildlife #photography
A snowy egret in the moment of trying to grab a fish, causing water to erupt into the air A snowy egret, a white bird with black legs in the moment of trying to snare a meal, causing water to splash into the air The snowy egret is fluffing out its feathers to dry off after fishing, standing in the middle of shallow water, generating riplets emanating out from itself. A snowy egret walking away from us in shallow water, with one leg held above the water in the moment of stepping. The egret is looking to the right
May 27, 2025 at 3:47 AM
wild-matters.bsky.social
Another shot of the cuckoo #bee.
Love those #knees

🌿🐙 #wildlife #pollinators #photography #flowers #gardening #nature #macro #habitat #outdoors #blooms
A cuckoo bee with long red antennae and yellow and black thorax and abdomen rests on a woolly sunflower flowerhead. The flowerhead has yellow ray and central disk flowers. The ends of the bee's legs are colored yellow up past its "knees" and blackish above.
May 24, 2025 at 4:58 AM
wild-matters.bsky.social
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekUforUp

A little cuckoo #bee ascends a woolly sunshine #flower

One tip that this is a bee and not a wasp is the hairs on the thorax.

🌿🐙 #gardening #wildlife #nature #insectthursday #macro #photography
A bee with a yellow and black striped abdomen and yellow and black markings on the thorax reaches to top of a yellow flower cluster. The bee has red antennae and has its wings folded like scissors over its back. You can see some fuzz on the thorax, suggesting this is a bee and not a wasp. The bee's legs also have yellow and black markings.
May 22, 2025 at 4:08 PM
wild-matters.bsky.social
Another blue-green mason #bee for #worldbeeday. It is visiting a #native phacelia.

Phacelias are #wildflowers that can be a bit weedy, but which bring blue-green bees to our #garden every year.

🐙🌿 #nature #photography #macro #pollinators #bees #gardening #flowers #wildlife
A mason bee in the blue-green group visits a native phacelia whose buds are lavender colored and whose open blooms are closer to white. The phacelia's stamens stick out beyond the petals. The mason bee, which is blue-green metallic on its head, thorax and abdomen, is upside down, with its head inside a flower.
May 21, 2025 at 2:58 AM
wild-matters.bsky.social
A mason #bee in the blue-green group on a #native phacelia for #stunday

🌿🐙 #willdlife #gardening #photography #macro #nature #wildflowers #flowerreport #pollinators #bloomscrolling
A blue-green mason bee visits a phacelia flower-head with multiple open blossoms extruding their stamens and multiple closed buds. The bee is bluish-green on its heaad, thorax and abdomen. The closed phacelia buds are light lavender colored while the open blossoms are white. The background is a blurred green.
May 18, 2025 at 3:01 PM
wild-matters.bsky.social
Mason #bees seem to spend a lot of time cleaning up after visiting #flowers

#insectthursday #nature #wildlife #pollinators 🌿🐙 #outdoors #macro #photography
May 16, 2025 at 3:32 AM
wild-matters.bsky.social
Such a #furry #face this little #skipper has, at rest on a #native #thistle.
Besides the thistle's flower heads being a favorite of #caterpillars, its #fluffy #down is carried off by different creatures.

🌿🐙 #insects #photography #macromonday #flowers #outdoors #gardening #butterflies
In the lower left, the spines of a Cirsium occidentale thistle's flower head point upward and outward. A skipper butterfly with its club shaped antennae, tan furry face and brown button eyes face us. the wings are mottled brown and tan. The spines of the thistle are shrouded in gauzy white material giving the thistle its common name, cobwebby thistle.
May 12, 2025 at 7:06 AM
wild-matters.bsky.social
This might be a ligated furrow #bee

🌿🐙 #bees #insects #photography #macro #flowers #bloomscrolling #pink #yellow #outdoors
Although by no means an expert, I think this might be a ligated furrow bee on the yellow blooms of an eriophyllum plant shown in the foreground. The eriophyllum flowers have yellow ray parts extending from the central disk of flowers that the bee rests on. The bee is mostly black but has a yellow and black striped abdomen. In the background is something pink that is undefined, with a vertical grey stripe exttending through it.
May 6, 2025 at 12:44 AM
wild-matters.bsky.social
#blueskyartshow

A #damsel (maybe a Tule damsel) in its #green #habitat, eating something #green
Love seeing them in the #garden because means plentiful #insect biomass foundation

🌿🐙 #willdlife #gardening #photography #macro #nature
A damselfly facing right alights on a leaf where it appears to be eating an aphid or some other small green insect. The damsel has multi-colored eyes with two light blue patches at their rear. The damsel's thorax has a central black stripe on top, and two light blue horizontal lines surrounding it. The wings and abdomen are out-of-focus, but light-blue and black striping is visible on thhe abdomen.
May 3, 2025 at 3:00 PM
wild-matters.bsky.social
The right #bee for the #job

I think this is a little masked bee visiting a #native #flax #wildflower (Linum lewisii)

🌿🐙 #wildlife #nature #flowers #bloomscrolling #gardening #pollinators
A tiny all-black bee has its head shoe-horned into the center of a blue flower, between the petals and the central area. The bee's abdomen is held higher, likely supported by stamens of the flower. The stamens look like window washing wands and are purple near the tips but fade to white at the base. The center of the flower is yellow-colored and the stigmas can be seen as yellow balls rising from the center, but lower than the stamens.
May 2, 2025 at 3:28 PM
wild-matters.bsky.social
nom nom nom...pollen!

🌿🐙 #nature #photography #flowers #bloomscrolling #bees #gardening
I think this is an Andrena bee shown horizontal with belly facing up. She is eating the pollen from an anther of phacelia flower, which has light purple petals. One of her legs has light hairs surrounding the joint but the joint is hairless and exposed. She has a smooth black abdomen, long oval black eyes and reddish hairs on her thorax.
April 29, 2025 at 4:28 AM
wild-matters.bsky.social
A bit of puff along with #blueskymonday

#nature #outdoors #photography 🌿
April 29, 2025 at 3:37 AM
wild-matters.bsky.social
For #macromonday, going with these enthusiastic #phacelia #buds and #Andrena #bee

🌿🐙 #wildlife #photography #flowers #nativeplants #gardening #outdoors
A black bee is facing buds of a phacelia plant which are in various stages of opening. The petals of the closed flowers seem like light purple balls. The petals' sepals are also in various stages of opening. The bee has white hairs on its legs (which are used to store pollen).
April 29, 2025 at 3:35 AM