So, I Met a Bee

It's been nearly eight years in this same back yard, and there are still new bees to meet!

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When we first arrived in Maine almost 8 years ago now, everything was new. New birds, new bugs, new butterflies. New trees, new plants, so many new mushrooms. It was a constant flurry of identification and familiarization. What’s this? What’s that? Did you see that one over there?

Over time, new faces become familiar neighbors. You begin to expect each other and look forward to each other, to know the days and the seasons and the rhythms. Who would have thought, after nearly 8 years of turning over all the leaves and drawing near to all the flowers and looking forward to all the comings and goings, that I would meet a brand new bee in my own back yard?

And that’s the thing about nature. Nature is always ready to serve you uncharted territories, new horizons, and delightful discoveries, right at your fingertips, right under your nose. If you will only be curious in nature, you will find yourself amazed, again and again, long after you think it could still be possible!

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Just be amazed!

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There are over 200 species of bees here in Maine, a fair number of which make their ways through our fields at various times in response to various blossomings. They are endlessly delightful companions, full of sunshine energy, abuzz with cheerful work ethic. If I’m feeling a bit reluctant to drag out another load of laundry or plow through another round of weeding, their buzz-gather-buzz-next! spirit quickly puts a smile back into my work.

And then I often think how funny it is that I keep calling them “he,” and then have to correct myself, “She! She! They’re all she!” It’s just kind of fun, wandering around among the fields and flowers, surrounded by busy, fabulous, friendly, feisty ladies. It’s a vibe.

The Tri-colored (or Orange-belted) Bumblebee, Bombus ternarius, is one of our most recognizable and frequent visitors, a really lovely native species that seems ever-present, all summer long. They are very calm, and very fuzzy, with the result that my kids discovered early that they will tolerate petting. Bee-petting is one of those things I never knew I needed until my kids discovered it for me 🤣

The Common Eastern Bumblebee, Bombus impatiens, is the largest of our local bees. She makes an immediate impression. I like to call her Bombus Bombus because she is improbably large with hilariously tiny wings and bombs about with enormous energy from blossom to blossom, each of which bends graciously under her perfectly balanced weight.

A handful of teeny bees that I can’t positively identify make brief appearances with specialized purposes, like the little cutie that fits inside an asparagus blossom, or the shining emerald sweat bees that blanket the creeping thyme, or the silvery ladies now buzzing about the cosmos. I don’t know all their names, but I look forward to seeing them every year.

But this year, apparently, my life was in need of an entirely new bee. Not new to science of course, but absolutely new to me. A new, surprising, wonderful, tiny bee, who also flew onto my knee, and held very, very still, so that I could capture her portrait for enjoyment, contemplation, and comparison. She is, it seems, some sort of longhorn bee - as you can see, these are very long “horns” indeed!

Here, by way of comparison, are some regular-sized “horns” on one of the teeny bees for which I don’t have a positive identification, but which are frequently among the wildflowers.

So cute. But not so long. Charmingly hinged and often on a swivel, they give her a cheeky, curious, engaging look. Sort of a typical bee look. And I suppose that’s what made this new bee stand out so strikingly. Surely, I would remember if I had ever seen such long antenna on a bee before!

Curved in sweeping elegance, nearly as long as she is, they bring a stylish sophistication to her every movement.

And do you know what else is fabulously adorable about these new bee friends? They snuggle overnight.

If you’re a bit of a bee person, you’ve likely noticed that on cool mornings, bees will be tucked into various meadow-y shelters waiting for the first droplets of morning sun to warm their wings and start their days. Nestled, sometimes, within a blossom that has folded its petals snugly around them for the night. Sometimes, on the underside of a leaf. Sometimes sleepily grasping a stem.

But look at these ladies. All grouped together beneath a single rudbeckia blossom. Piled into a little slumber party for the Maine evening, slowly unfolding over petal edges for the Maine morning. So. Darn. Cute.

You don’t always know when you need a new bee in your life. But nature knows, the bees know, and they’re out there just waiting for you to figure it out!

💛🐝💛

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