Amazing Little Creatures

There are actually two bees in this photo; the one in the center is easily visible (well, if you left click to enlarge the photo) and there's another one tucked into the wild lupin blossoms on the upper right of the photo. 

The photo above is blurry (sorry), but if you look closely you can see the little 'tongues' of the happy bees getting a drink.  I think honey bees have such cute faces.  They're such amazing creatures; only the Queen bee can sting without dying and she also chooses if the egg she lays will be a female or a male.  The male bees are only used as . . . ummm . . . sperm donors.  The males choose a site where they meet up with Queens from neighboring hives and mate.  The poor little males aren't allowed to remain in the hive during the winter, but forced out to die.  I think this is taking feminism a tad too far!  But, I'm not a queen bee and she probably has good reasons; however I can't remember what they are right now.  Anyway, the daughter bees keep the hive very tidy at all times, going outside no matter the weather to defecate, cleaning old wax and such from the hive, warming the hive in the winter by trembling their wings, cooling it in summer by fanning their wings and sprinkling it with water.  All the daughter bees start out as nursemaids, then progress to cleaners and foragers.  Bees navigate by the sun and perform intricate dances to tell the other forager bees exactly how to get to the flowers and back to the hive.  You can read more about these awe inspiring creatures at:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/zoology/bee.htm

Brrrrrrrrr!

Last night the weather seemed more like March than June. Howling winds, a little cold rain and even a few flurries of snow!

I thought for sure the emerging wildflowers, like the Grape Soda Lupines above, would be flattened. Happily, they're just fine. The dogwood flowers didn't fare as well, but they're at the end of their bloom anyway.

We had gusts of freezing cold wind up to 80 mph which knocked down a lot of branches from various trees but, luckily, the trees themselves are okay.

I don't know if the birds fared as well, though. I've seen the larger birds; the Steller Jays, the Black Headed Grosbeaks, the Flickers and the Ravens, but I didn't see any House Finches, Chickadees or Nuthatches today. I hope they're all right.

Such strange, cold weather for June. But when I think of the terrible wildfire raging out of control over in Arizona I'm grateful beyond words for the out-of-season weather we've been getting. I hope it continues. In fact, I wouldn't care if hot weather just passed us by completely this year...and every year!