After attending the funeral, I had just enough time to look for bees in a desert setting. Just for a little variety, I wanted to photograph bees getting pollen in the Arizona desert where I grew up.
In my quest for bees, I spied these two green parrots nesting in a saguaro cactus. Footnote, Lauren Harter has ID’ed these as Rosy-faced Lovebirds.
I so wanted to get some photos of bees on this bush, but I never saw a single one.
The Palo Verde trees (Parkinsonia aculeata ) were in full blossom at the airport, but it was impossible to get off the shuttle to set up a camera. Out here, the trees were just coming into bloom, but still no bees on them.
Yellow blossoms…Is it Grey Desert Senna (Senna artemisioides subsp. sturtii)? I don’t know, but it was a beautiful desert setting in someone’s front yard with Mexican Fence Post to the left, saguaro in the background, and prickly pear in foreground right…no bees, though.
A rock is embedded in this young saguaro. As it grew it must have carried it upward.
A desert bird. My knowledge of birds is completely underwhelming. “A Beehive Inside My Heart” says this looks like a Mourning Dove.
Jumping Cholla. This cactus doesn’t really jump, but if you’re walking close enough to brush it, a piece will break off and attach itself to you. It can penetrate a leather boot. If there is moisture such as contact with skin the tips will curve and lock themselves under the skin. There are actually two basketballs here, one slightly behind, left of the cactus.
I can picture a spirited basketball game where the ball gets away and bounces against a jumping cholla…and there it stays, because who wants to risk getting stuck with the sharp needles.
Gambel’s Quail hiding. They run fast out in the open, then hide under some cactus. On the video you can see it run between hiding spots.
Many thanks to Lauren Harter, Jim Fox, and “The Prospect of Bees” for identifying this Gila Woodpecker. You can hear it’s song in the video.
Thanks to Lauren Harter for the name of this European Starling. In the video the bird just sits on the branch as if to listen to the other bird calls.
I asked the fence installers where I could find honeybees? They pointed to a broken cinder block that I had just about stepped on. There was my first sighting of bees.
At first I thought these had to be wasps, because I had never seen a ground hive of honeybees, but here they are with pollen baskets laden.
Ground hive bees packing orange pollen. I wonder where they’re getting it?
It’s almost time to get packed up and head back to Oregon when my son-in-law mentions he saw bees on the grapefruit trees at the house where we’re staying.
At last I find the bees, right in my own backyard.
One last desert setting at the Phoenix-Mesa airport. It’s great to visit at this time of year and while I miss the desert colors and bird song in the spring, there is no chance I want to visit in the summer.
The video features a daybreak orchestra of bird calls.
If there is moisture, such as with skin, the tips actually curve once they have made contact, locking their spines in place just underneath the skins top layer. OUCH!
Adventures in Natural Beekeeping 
those parrots are beautiful! and the unidentified bird in the 6th picture looks like a mourning dove to me. 🙂
Thanks, I’ll link you up to that.
The ‘cactus wren’ looked to us rather like a woodpecker of some kind. Googling ‘cactus woodpecker’ turned up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gila_Woodpecker , which seems to resemble the bird in the pic.
Regarding the stone being carried upwards as the cactus grew, are you certain that cacti grow like that?
Trees add new growth at the top and get wider but anything like initials carved in the bark by lovers stays at the same height.
Cacti may grow differently for all we know.
Uh, no, I’m not sure about how cactus grows. I just found it interesting that a rock would be trapped there about half way up and speculated about it. Later after I had photographed it, my grand daughter proudly presented it to me saying she got it out without getting stuck by the needles.
Love the video and as usual there are so many distractions in nature. One that you just can’t pass up. Great shots! 😀
Thanks, Sonel. You’re right, I just got lost in all the bird sounds. I could have just sat there listening for hours, but we had to leave. As an aside…we had booked a return flight on a no-frills airline at about 1/3 the price. When we returned the rental car, we realized the flight was not leaving the airport we arrived at, but a smaller one about 40 miles away. Panic set in but we ended up getting to the other airport in time. 🙂
What a pity. If I was there they would have dragged me away. LOL! Glad all worked out for you. I wouldn’t have been happy at all. 😀
I know! I was focusing on all the bird calls as soon as your video started. Not likely honeybees as such nesting in the ground, but actual Ground bees. They are among the pollinators, honey bee, bumblebee etc, who gather pollen. Great post!
http://www.bumblebee.org/OTHERbees.htm
The above web site has an interesting sketch of a ground hive, suggesting a tunnel and a few ‘pockets’ where the female can lay eggs. And yes, mining bees do carry pollen…thanks for pointing that out.
Amazing video. I have never been to anywhere like that. I would love to see the love birds in the wild – I’ve only seen them in zoos! I think the bees in the ground could be some kind of mining bee.
Thanks, Amelia. Since the ground no doubt is alkaline, it’s possible they are mining bees. I’ve got a request to this web site http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/homehort/pest/mining_bees.htm to see if he can offer an opinion. My thinking is there is a lot of traffic to suggest they are honeybees, but then I’ve never seen miners at work and the WSU.EDU web site says this… “Bees select exposed, well-drained soils to nest in such as banks, hills and road cut-outs. Although the bees are solitary nesters, they often construct nests in large numbers next to one another at a given nesting site.”
Try faithful Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrena, I’m not impressed with that site. There are lots of different mining bees, not only Andrena, and some Andrena are coloured I have a lovely Andrena flava that is red and visits my blackcurrant flowers. I do not think they are dangerous as they are not aggressive. Possibly a female would sting if you tried to squash her. It is possible to see large numbers of mining bees at their nests. Amelia
Love the video, gave me a renewed appreciation for the beautiful place I am fortunate enough to call home. The lovebirds in the saguaro are so sweet!
Yes, it’s a nice place to live (in the winter and spring), but you won’t catch me there in the summer. I’ve been away for too many years…can’t take the heat anymore. 🙂
What an amazing place to visit, so different from anything that I have experience of. I started a road trip across the US in my early twenties, but we were called home from Memphis because of my best friend’s ailing father and never resumed the trip. The southwest is therefore completely unknown to me except for what I’ve seen through films, books and suchlike. What great pictures you got – love those rosy-faced lovebirds sitting together. The bird sounds must have been quite enveloping.
I don’t remember such a variety of bird songs when I was growing up…maybe I wasn’t far enough out in the ‘real’ desert area. It was a happy surprise to wake up to such a symphony of bird life on my recent visit. I’m glad I was able to shoot some video of it.
Good to hear so much nature:) I have had trouble watching till now, bad connection this end, glad the problem was fixed.
What a wonderful post! Great photos and story of your search for honey bees!
Thank you for taking us with you on your walk. I’m like you and always look out for bees when on holiday now!
It’s hard to stop yourself from it. And it takes you on interesting adventures. I’ve found that strangers become friends when you’re talking about bees.
Yes, beekeepers are always happy to find a kindred spirit who shares their obsession 🙂