Bumblebee
posted 3 Sep ’06, 6.10pm MDT PST on flickr
In the real life can be strange too department…
We’ve recently been helping my mother-in-law clean up her cluttered yard and garage. She offered to let us take about 3/4 of a cord of firewood she had purchased for her small outdoor fireplace, and we can use the wood up at our cabin. While loading it from the side of the house, we kept dodging these huge hovering black bumblebees who seemed disturbed abut movement of the wood pile.
There did not seem to be any nests buried in there, but 3 or 4 of them just kept hovering a bit too close for comfort. We drove the wood about 25 miles to store at our house until our next trip, and were sure we had left those bees behind in Chandler.
So imagine our surprise when yesterday we noticed two very familiar looking bees hovering over the wood pile stored in our car port, and while we have plenty of insects around here, I can say I had never seen two of these fat bees before.
Now I am convinced the same bees somehow tracked and followed us. My better half, who is often more correct than I in practical matters, thinks this is silly and that they are either un-related, or maybe had come along from a spot tucked inside one of the logs.
I like the Call of the Wild notion that animals have instincts and capabilities to travel and locate, like the journeys of the Monarch Butterflies, the migration of hummingbirds, salmon going upstream to spawn, etc.
The confirmation will be this weekend, when the wood drives 90 miles north to the pine forest… how long will it take these bees to find us?
To be continued….
So THAT’s where all the bees are going! To your woodpile in Arizona!
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/USA%2C_Honey-bee_die-off_accelerates…massive_crop_declines_possible
Hello, ick comes from Austria, today has I again time around English sprachige Blogs to read. I will form over your topic an opinion and you by post office will write.
I wish you kind regards from Austria in the Wachau
herko
Wonderful, regards from Arizona. I will be waiting at the post office.
Did I ever tell you about my bee phobia? Well, coming here was a test – I still have it .. yikes…
I think they might be carpenter bees. At least that’s my guess. We’ve got them around our house. When my wife said a bee ate a hole in our fence I started searching and found this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpenter_bee
Mine look a lot more bee-ish that those photos but maybe that’s what’s going on.
Tom
Thanks Tom, it sure reads like you are right on with the identification!
I should have been more clear on the photo– that was not mine, just a random one I found in flickr. The bees we had were big fat and black, and the wood pile was covered with sawdust which was a mystery to me.. until now.
So THAT’S what these bees are !!! There are a couple that hover around our back patio, big fat and black. (I’m in Queen Creek, az) They mostly hover around the wooden beams, like they’re looking for a place to nest. Well i always wondered what kind of a bee they were. The seem friendly, although one day i had a colorful shirt on, and one chased me. I think he was trying to pollinate me !!!
thanks for your site, and tom for your link 🙂