Rewilding My Lot

This little episode was a lot more fun to watch than photograph. There was a small bee collecting pollen at a patch of native grasses and with all of the bee and grass motion in the wind, I was having a hard time capturing everything in focus. Here’s my best attempt.

Back in May I planted a mixture of three native grasses (Buffalograss, Blue Grama and Curly Mesquite), and I think two of them are represented here because of the variety of seed head shapes that I could see. Unfortunately, I made a strategic error when I planted the grasses in not setting aside some to plant in pots so that I could later identify which is which. I will eventually figure it out, but I’m not there yet!

I knew theoretically that bees feed on grass pollen, but hadn’t witnessed it before. I don’t plan to mow the areas that I have designated for native grasses, so I hope that there will be plenty more of this activity in the future.

Update: A couple of days after drafting this, I saw a similar bee (the same one?) in the same location.