A Pretty Good Warbler Day

 

Yellow Warbler

Two things drive the warblers through Halibut Point in the spring: an irresistible urge to get to their northern nesting grounds, and the availability of the right kind of food.

Magnolia Warbler

Weather has a great effect on the particulars of their trip. I don't know if the birds fret about the weather, but birdwatchers certainly do. None of us wants them to be blown off course.

Common Yellowthroat, female

Unseasonable chills delay the food supply, those tasty morsels that emerge along with tender new foliage. This year as cool windy days dragged on and the tree branches stayed bare and the caterpillars didn't hatch and the birds didn't appear, we fretted.

Black-throated Green Warbler

Then in a warm rainy spell this week the warblers made their entrance. They were propelled by auspicious southerly winds.

Chestnut-sided Warbler

The overcast dulled their lustrous colors, but the birds were fulfilling their migratory destiny and gladdening all who saw them.

Bay-breasted Warbler

Their appearance was brief and extravagant. It reminded me of the reverence that samurais felt for ephemeral cherry blossoms.

American Redstart

The next day, with brilliant sunshine, the warblers were nowhere to be seen.

Common Yellowthroat

A Korean poem came to mind:

Last night's wind spoiled the blossoms of every peach tree in the garden. Is the boy fetching a broom? Does he mean to sweep them up? Fallen flowers, but still they are flowers: what need is there to sweep them up?

 "Echoes from the Land of Morning Calm"

Strawberry Pollinators - Flower Flies

 

All manner of flies are attracted to the early-season nutrition of strawberry flowers. Some of these insects are tiny enough to roam within the 5/8" flower realm.

Gonia sagax, Parasitic Fly

Others, seen eye to eye, look more imposing.

Bombylius major, Great Bee Fly

One species of fly hovers like a miniature hummingbird as it draws in nectar through a long proboscis. Its resemblance to a bumblebee must offer some protection from predators.

Platycheirus sp., - Sedgesitter Fly

The diverse Syrphid family known as the Hover Flies characteristically hold a stationary position in midair while deciding on their next move.

Syritta pipiens - Thick-legged Hover Fly

Strawberry flowers suit them perfectly because, like most flies, and unlike the bee fly, their sucking mouthparts cannot probe into tube-like corollas.

Anasimyia anausis, Moon-shaped Swamp Fly

In this pollination match, syrphid flies come into the world with a strong preference for white and yellow flowers.

Eupeodes americanus, American Hover Fly

Syrphid flies are frequent flower visitors to a wide range of wild plants, as well as agricultural crops, and are often considered the second-most important group of pollinators after wild bees. (Wikipedia)

Toxomerus marginatus, Margined Calligrapher

Their functional association with flowers adds delightful dimensions of form, flight, and pattern to the natural history observer's appreciation of microcosmic life.

Strawberry Pollinators - The Bees

 

Lasioglossum, subgenus Dialictus,  Metallic-Sweat Bee

Perhaps because strawberry flowers bloom early in the year while it's still cool, almost all the bees I've seen foraging among them have been wild, native species as distinct from the imported, though sometimes naturalized, Honey Bees, which become more active at temperatures above 55 degrees.

Colletes inaequalis, Unequal Cellophane Bee

It would also make sense that these flora and fauna have a preferential relationship, the native bees' tastes, habits, and mouthparts having co-evolved with the structure, timing, and nutritional offerings of this particular flower.

Ceratina sp., Small Carpenter Bee

The strawberry flowers are only five-eighths to three-quarters of an inch across. You can see that many of these native species are tiny creatures that, to the casual eye, might not be recognized as bees at all as they flit quietly through the vegetation.

Nomada sp., Nomad Bee

Other than honey bees and bumble bees, which are considered 'social' because they live cooperatively with individuals developing specialized tasks that support the colony, native species are solitary bees in the sense that every female is fertile, and typically inhabits a nest she constructs herself. There is no division of labor so these nests lack queens and workers. Solitary bees typically produce neither honey nor beeswax, but they do collect pollen to feed their young.

Augochlorini, Green-Sweat Bee

According to a U. S. Department of the Interior website, about 20%-45% of native bees are pollen specialists, meaning that they use only pollen from one species (or genus) of plants. If that plant is removed, the bee goes away. If bees are removed, the plant doesn't reproduce.

Apis mellifera, Western Honey Bee

This is the only honey bee I noticed investigating a strawberry flower. It is considerably larger than the native species, with body parts more adapted to transporting both pollen and nectar home to its brood, and to the domestic harvest of human beekeepers.

Spring Portraits

The main migration of birds through Halibut Point must be only days away. There have been occasional delights over the past month.

Palm Warbler

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Carolina Wren

American Goldfinch

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Red-breasted Mergansers

Eastern Towhee