Female Georgia mason bee (Osmia georgica) with remnants of processed pollen on her mandibles. There are varying estimates of how many foraging trips they make to complete a pollen ball, but maybe 20-40. This species tends to focus on flowers in the Asteraceae and Rosaceae. #bees #insects #hymenoptera #entomology #nature #pollinator #pollen

Art + Critique alumni: #Pollinator is a free, virtual five-week residency bringing people together across art, culture, tech and social impact through weekly roundtables and peer coaching.

A few A+C alumni joined the first round and came back energised by the generosity of the group and the quality of the conversations.

Open until 6 April. Use the code from my email or message me.

#ArtnCritique #MutualSupport #PeerLearning #VirtualResidency

@SrRochardBunson here's some of mine starting to come up for this spring & summer, within another 2-3 weeks I'll start to see stalks for it's tiny purple flowers. I absolutely love it for how many happy big bumblebees I get with it and my chickens enjoy munching on the leaves I bring them from it too. But do understand if you've very sensitive/delicate skin, as I do, that it does feel a little prickly to the touch, so either enduring a little shortterm pain or wearing gloves will be needed for trimming it back.

Also note that while the bees do indeed love said flowers, they're not very fragrant nor #asthma attack triggering, so if you want an asthmatic friendly #pollinator plant, this is definitely one for that list.

#Comfrey

A native miner bee (M) (Andrena) is seen drying off on a rigid green leaf, having just emerged from the nest his mother dug. Once out of their birth nest, males will forage on nectar and mate, but never live in another nest.
Females dig the nest, collect provisions to store for the next generation, and defend the nest against intruders. Females return to the nest to sleep, while males will rest and sleep in flowers or attached, by their jaws, to the stems and leaves of plants. #portland #oregon #native_bee #pollinator #pnw