A Hungry Bumblebee

Daily Note

Every day, a photograph, a poem. Today as I started to review my Google Photos, I noticed a Google created album, “Insects,” and inside was this delightful photo I’d taken of a bumblebee on the lavender in my yard. Bumblebees are so important to wildflowers and greenhouse gardeners. They are social colony builders of underground homes, and their busy work gathering nectar helps pollinate each flower on which it feeds. Unlike other bees, bumblebees live in colder climates so you see them higher up in the mountains, on cloudy days, and further north in the world. For information about Western Bumblebees, take a look at this US Forest Service booklet: Bumblebees.

In looking through the booklet, I think my bumblebee is a Bombus huntii. It’s coloring— the orange band, the black band at the end and in the middle and the yellow face indicate so. It’s also a bee that lives in our area, according to their maps.

And so, a poem.

Bumblebee

In cloudy, cooler times
From the underground
A furry Bombus huntii
Feeds on lavender he’s found
Steady worker climbing
Through the stamens, pollen filled,
Drawing in the nectar sweet—
He’s a colony to build.

Sheri Edwards
043022 121.365.22
Poetry/Photography

1157 days of posts in a row

For a bit about the writing process: What Else Bumblebee