In a nature preserve across town, the only plants in flower were the alders at the edge of a wetland, and honey bees were making the most of them (3/14/25)

Silver maple flowers are one of the first pollen sources for honeybees -- seen them collecting sometimes (tho not in large numbers).

beng - I've heard the same about honey bees visiting silver maple flowers, but I've never actually observed it. The single silver maple in my yard doesn't have any branches low enough to observe easily, but I did notice a few flies checking out its flowers up higher.

A couple more days in the 60s here have resulted in lots of activity on the witch-hazel flowers, with plenty of flies and honey bees taking advantage of the mild weather:

Male pussy willow flowers enticed a small wasp and a long-horned bee:

@arbordave (SE MI), congrurulations on the new thread and the first pollinators in your garden! Isn’t witch-hazel flower very fragrant? they look very beautiful too

While not a tree nor a shrub...Leavenworthia exigua var. laciniata is a rare little beast that only grows in a very limited area of southern Jefferson County and northern Bullitt County (KY), and it lives its life cycle in the very early spring of the year between late February/early April on dolomitic limestone outcrops.

It just so happens that Louisville Metro stewards a conservation area where this plant can thrive, and I've had the pleasure of being able to observe Kentucky Glade Cress do its thing for the past 20 years or so. Today was the first time I ever captured (fuzzily) an image with a pollinator on a flower.

I bet better eye-D-ers than me can tell what winged wonder this is...

I’m just starting to see insects, but no pollination pics yet. Arbordave, which Witch-hazel might that be? I’ve got H. v., but that flowers in late fall. I know there’s a native to the southern U.S., but no idea when it or the Asian hybrids flower. In any case, great pics and post.

forever and maackia - that's Arnold Promise Witch-hazel, a hybrid (H. mollis x H. japonica). It does have fragrant flowers, but to my nose it's relatively faint and not that impressive. After -12F this winter, there was minor injury to some scattered flower buds, but most of the flowers opened normally. The polar vortex winters, however, killed all the flower buds except the lowest ones protected by snow cover. As one of the earliest woody plants to bloom here, it has significant value to the early pollinators.

ViburnumValley - that's an interesting little "gladecress"; it has a family resemblance to "spring cress" (Cardamine bulbosa) which is fairly common here. Not sure what bee species you have there, but it looks similar to the one pictured below (first 2 photos) that showed up again today on willow catkins, possibly a "miner bee" in the Andrena genus.

It's been relatively cold since my last post a week ago, but this afternoon (3/27/25) it warmed to the mid 50s, enough for a fair amount of activity on the witch-hazel and willow even with a strong breeze. Note: all the willow photos I've posted are catkins that developed from cuttings that I kept indoors and put outside on the warmer days (willows aren't this far along yet at my location).

A small hover fly

Another warm but overcast day for me, althhough a bit windy. Spring ephemerals are busy today!

5-11-25:

Had a couple honeybees flying around today. This one I caught on one of my white spruce.

They appeared a little sluggish, but catkins are showing on many of the trees in town.

Been hard to get above 60 so far.

Whoa - never knew bees were interested in conifer pollens. How long do we have wait for them to evolve ornamental flowers? Or has that already happened? https://www.hickoryhollownursery.com/catalog/picea-orientalis-skylands-cones/

Maybe I never see it because a goal of my garden is to have some angiosperm flowering on every day of the year. Thanks to Erica darleyensis cultivars, that has been almost unbroken. But by the time its warm enough for bees to be flying around, other things are blooming like Edgeworthia. I was surprised how early I saw bumblebees this year, but I guess we had some early bursts of warmth that woke them up.

So @BillMN-z-2-3-4 - how long have you been predicting the future? Or are you just back from a Time Machine ride?

no, no pollen on the spruce david. Bees are just starting to show, and I think they just needed a place to rest. They act like they need a cup of coffee or two and I happened to be more alert at the time than they were. :^)

VV, I hear that a lot! ;-)) j/k

But I never reveal my secrets. ;-)

As an aside, I noticed strobili forming on one of the Canadian yews:

This one grows in near total shade with very little dappled sun and looks immaculate considering the yew damage I noticed around the yard.

The first new green growth I've noticed. L. laricina (bud in center of pic):

Weathermen forecasting a night or two in the high 20's next week. After that, it looks good for no freezes, but you just have to roll the dice hoping for another year of no May frost/freezes. Some we do get is light and does no damage.

After another cold week it was sunny and pleasant today, high 54F with a cool breeze out of the NE. The pussy willows in the damp field across the road are nearing full flower, and honey bees and several fly species were easy to spot. A few skittish Comma butterflies were also present, but mostly stayed close to the ground, apparently not interested in the willows. There were also some flies and a couple small bees visiting the boxwood flowers by the driveway. All photos 4/12/25

Honeybees in chilly weather may need to stop and "sun" themselves at times. Bumblebees have alot of insulating hair so to help preserve internally-generated heat from their flying-muscles, so are able to work very early in the season.

It was a "blue butterfly day" here today (4/17/25), bright sun and a light breeze, temps topping out near 60F. This Spring Azure was sunning itself on an old stem near the creek (where there was also some "April mire"). They rarely open their wings except in flight.

In the same area the spring beauties were in full bloom, and quite a few small miner bees were visiting the flowers.

There were also a few "bee flies" dipping into the spring beauties, hovering like tiny hummingbirds between visits.

This one landed just long enough for a photo

arbordave, looked up "April mire" and couldn't find anything that made sense. An old colloquial saying?

"Blue-Butterfly Day" by Robert Frost

April has also been described as the "cruellest month" because of the very variable weather.

I spotted my first two swallowtails if thr season today which seems way to early. One zebra swallowtail while I was walking the dog and this Eastern Swallowtail on my lilac.

Happy Earth Day! Be sure to get outside and look for some pollinators today.

Miner bees have been visiting the trout lilies in the backyard

A bee fly was also attracted to the trout lilies this morning

Lots of bees on the neighbor's 'Snow Fountains' cherry

Thank you for the prompt to do this. Wish I’d had a real camera with me insyead of just my phone because as I was checking out my amsonia, it got a visit from what I think was a clear-wing hawk moth. I don't think I've ever noticed one around herr this early in the season.

Don't know what this is.

A bit wicked looking.

Not my yard.

Eta:

Eta: Possibly Polistes rubiginosus or polistes carolina, both considered pollinators.

I finally saw my first flying insects of the season yesterday, but had no camera ready. :p

I saw this in my photos recently — this bee was loaded down. Taken in 2023, on a dahlia that I had grown from seed.

A good amount of sunshine and warm temps here today (4/25/25), with rain moving in late. On a walk at a nearby nature preserve I noticed several spring azure butterflies and one comma, none of which were in a mood to cooperate for a photo. Miner bees were visiting the flowers of spring beauties, spring cress, and cutleaf toothwort. A small serviceberry in the understory was being visited by several beetles (likely genus Hoplia, not sure on the species)

A small miner bee on spicebush flowers

Happy Arbor Day!

Some photos from this past week (4/28-5/2/25)

Miner bee on cutleaf toothwort

Bumblebee on Virginia bluebells

Another bumblebee visiting Judd viburnum

Spring Azure sipping up some "April mire" in the backyard

Another Spring Azure resting on a Heptacodium leaf

I had seen this little day-flying moth several times before, but wasn't able to get a photo until it stopped at some wild currant flowers. A "Grapevine Epimenis"

I’m not sure what this paper wasp was eating, but it was chowing down on something.

Markay -- chewed caterpillar delight, which they take back to the nest to feed the young.

Last days I have seen swallow tigers flying in my garden and I feel so happy even though I could not catch a photo

Mating couple on a pomegranante bloom

Honey bee on the white peony

Small butterfly on sweet pea flower

Pincushion flower

forever, nice photos! I believe those are "banded longhorn beetles" on your pomegranate. Your 3rd photo is a silver spotted skipper.

With warmer temps here, a greater variety of butterflies are making their appearance. The first swallowtail of the year (in my yard) visiting Judd viburnum (5/10/25), a male tiger ST

A Harvester butterfly on the moist sand near the creek's edge (5/9/25). This is the only butterfly in the US that has carnivorous larvae (they feed on aphids)

A Juvenal's Duskywing on the forest floor (5/12/25). There were one or two of these visiting wood betony flowers in the same area.

A comma butterfly on a gray dogwood stem, imitating a dead leaf (5/12/25)

An unknown bee was crawling through the redbud flowers yesterday (5/11/25)

A small bee on Fothergilla (5/9/25)

A green sweat bee on Homestead buckeye flowers (5/12/25)

@arbordave (SE MI), thanks for identifying the names！And I love your pictures

Honeybee.

I've seen several types of pollinators this last week or so but with 90's and very windy for several days, it's been tough getting them to stay still long enough for a photo shoot. :-)

just caught my first swarm of the year. i've retired from beekeeping but my daughter took over & i capture swarms for her.

Gorgeous photos, everyone! and, wow, rober49!!!

I am having trouble finding pollinators here! Today I found a couple ants and a small bee on one of my cherry trees.

I was also surprised to see an unknown bee on one of my apple trees. It’s an orange-belted bumblebee and I’ve never seen one before! I never got a good pic of him but you can see his orange belt here (left of center)