Posts Tagged: pollinator garden
First Flameskimmer of the Year
It was a little late. The first flameskimmer of the year usually arrives in our yard in early April. Not this year. The...
A flameskimmer, Libellula saturata, perches on a bamboo stick in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Another view of the flameskimmer, Libellula saturata. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
'My Old Flame' Returns
"My old flame" returned Saturday, July 2. A strong north wind aided him. It wasn't the "old flame" from last year, but a new generation. Still,...
A red flameskimmer or firecracker skimmer (Libellula saturata) perches on a tomato stake in a Vacaville pollinator garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A strong north wind engulfs the red flameskimmer, turning his wings into head gear. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Big Red, the flameskimmer, agrees to another portrait. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
What's on the menu? Big Red, the flameskimmer, returns to his perch to eats his lunch. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Day a Clothespin Sprang to Life
Saturday, April 9 was the day a clothespin sprang to life. Some 200 praying mantis nymphs emerged from an ootheca that Mama Mantis...
This is what the ootheca looked like in mid-March. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Saturday, April 9 was "Hatch Day." (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Some of the praying mantis nymphs climbed to the top of a metallic quail sculpture on the clothesline, getting a bird's eye view. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Well, howdy there, sibling! What big eyes you have! (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Beekeeper
Ishai Zeldner, a beekeeper turned businessman, would have been proud. Zeldner, who died in 2018 at age 71, would have been proud to see...
These are Ishai Zeldner's bee boxes in The Hive, Woodland. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A close-up of Ishai Zeldner's bee boxes in The Hive, Woodland. He documented his work on the bee boxes. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Ishai Zeldner loved starthistle honey; his business began with this varietal. Here a honey bee forages on a starthistle, a weed loved by beekeepers but hated by farmers. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Ooh, an Ooth! And on a Clothespin, at That!
No doubt you've seen a praying mantis egg case, or ootheca, on a tree, shrub, fence or post. But have you ever seen one attached to a...
An eggcase or ootheca warming on a clothespin in Vacaville, Calif. This is from a Stagmomantis limbata. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
This image of a gravid Stagmomantis limbata, taken last summer in a Vacaville pollinator garden, may have been the mama. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The predator and the prey. A female mantis, Stagmomantis limbata, eyes a honey bee in a pollinator garden in Vacaville last summer. She missed. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)