Monarch Monitoring Milkweed Blooms

The swamp milkweed at the Children's Museum is blooming so pretty in pink, coinciding with my first monarch sighting of the year. (yesterday-- no picture though) Bees and other butterflies, like a skipper for example I saw today, are digging those pretty pink blooms too.

Focus

I think it's fair to say that I have been focusing both the camera lens and my attention on pollinators, what's blooming and grasses in autumn for some time now. This year I didn't see any green metallic sweat bees but I did run into some skippers and discovered some new-to-me butterflies in the summer.

More Than Anything, I Must Have Flowers, Always and Always-- Monet

Wait. So this Monet was a butterfly?

What kind?

Or maybe he was a honeybee?

Quick Bee Hunt

I wanted to see if I could snap a picture of a pollinator today so I headed to a plant I figured might have some visitors and this Liatris, an American wildflower,  did not disappoint.

A big patch of Lysimachia clethroides was also a hot spot for bees and wasps. And while I got no pictures, I spotted pollinators visiting some Summersweet, Vitex and Russian sage on my quick bee hunt as well. Success!

Abundance

Granted, the lily is indeed a massive flower, the anthers like giant fuzzy-slippered landing pads, but that is one very very tiny bee. I'm not sure how to make a comparison to any feast I've eaten. But then, I've never actually sat down in my dinner plate with room to stretch out and walk around.

We had our first eggplant for dinner tonight.

Where The Bees Are

Hanging around. This afternoon, there was a little party on the corner of Bank and Hudson. Guess maybe they're foodies too (come on they're New York City bees, they know what the trends are) and they heard there was a pop-up food scene in the form of some blooming Lindens and a Goldenrain tree.The honeybee probably got the word through a dance, but I don't know how the Megachile knew. (at least that's what I think the native bee below is.)  Maybe it followed that sweet scent or maybe it just went out like I did for lunch and wandered a bit in search of a bite to eat.

Reason to love the late bloomers

Hover fly, perennial sunflower, firecracker vine



Besides that last shot of color before the winter, it's all about the pollinators and making them happy. I see more bees in my garden on my asters in the fall than at any other time in the season, which is why I'm happy I planted them. The bee and flies pictured here around the rose garden at BBG are probably happy about the Perennial Sunflowers and late-blooming salvias too.

Bees, Sedum

It's always a treat to come upon any plant buzzing with bees. Today, in the afternoon, that plant was a sedum. Both in the rock garden and the rose arc border, this plant was the bee show. They like this sedum. Me too.