Mason Bee update

Here's a cooccon with mud screen off, still a lot of Pollen Mites, I think the brown things are droppings from the larva.

I thought I would post an update with pictures of before and after cleaning the coccoons.

The timing of the weather here is pretty critical for the bee's to get out and forage, with  a lot of tall tree's creating shade our yard is  not the best place for them, full sun starting in the morning would be way better and if you have a lot of fruit tree's you probably do, but my few fruit tree's struggle and the bee's help but a lot of them go over to the neighbors huge cherry tree so they do have access to pollen.

There is a lot of predation, parasitic wasps, paper-wasps, jumping spiders get a few, woodpeckers and a new one I discovered last summer, Carpenter Ants, I always wondered what was getting in there since there was always mud crumbs at the bottom of the houses. So next year I will make screens for the houses to put over once the bee's are done or the house is full.

This is a close up stack of the surface after the cleaning is finished, the silk covering takes a beating but the bee is protected inside the membrane.

For woodpecker screen's I have tried different things wood fronts, hardware cloth and last summer I tried a thin sheet of polycarbonate also known as Lexan, on one  front facing houses and it worked well, the bee's don't really like going through hardware cloth. So I will replace the hardware cloth with polycarbonate, I just leave a one inch gap and make it wider than the front the bee's don't seem to mind coming in from the side.

I probably get one to two thousand cocoons so the front porch is very active on warm days, and it's nice sitting out there in the warm sun with bee's working away.

I still put them out in batches in case a cool period happens and it does almost every year, but when the fruit tree's are starting to bloom some of them have to go out, and you can't hold back too long since first week in June they seem to be all done.

Animation of photo stack to show movement of the Pollen Mites. You don't seen any movement just looking at it but over a few minutes there are all kinds.

I have managed to get bit by the Mason Bee and I have been stung, both times was because one was tangled in some clothing, they are not aggressive at all, and we sit there with them flying around us and even landing on us to sun.

I am looking forward to taking them out of the fridge and putting them out, it is something I really enjoy.

Martin

Click on pictures for larger views.

Attracting Warblers to your yard

Warblers are small quick moving colorful birds that migrate through here in May/June and August/September feeding on insects and sometimes berries.

The only warbler that I have seen eat from the suet feeder is the Yellow-rumped Warbler and that only happened one spring so attracting them will take some planning.

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata)

Tree's, shrubs and moving water is what works for many birds that aren't attracted to feeders, I never planned for attracting warblers, I didn't think there were that many around but after adding native shrubs and moving water they started showing up and now I look for ones  like the Wilson's Warbler where there is a three day window that they  come through the yard.

Wilson's Warbler (Cardellina pusilla)

My favorite shrub is the Black Twinberry (Lonicera involucrata), I plant them around the yard and right at the top of the waterfall and another one along side the waterfall, they give good protection, lots of flowers attracting pollinators and Orange-crowned warblers in the spring and quickly ripening berries in the summer. There is always activity in them. Other good shrubs and small tree's to have are and making them into a hedgerow is a good idea.

Red Elderberry

Ocean Spray

Mock Orange

Pacific Nine Bark

Sitka Mountain Ash

Fruit tree's, don't spray them with anything.

Red Flowering Currant

Hawethorn

American Holly

Service Berry

Vibernum's

Winter Honeysuckle

Vines

Orange Honeysuckle

Virginia Creeper

Chilean Glory Vine

This video show's what it's like when all the birds want to get to the water at the same time, the robin's some for the berries then bathe often treating the water like there own private spa but the others manage to squeeze in.

Running water is the other big attractant and will get Warbler's and other birds to stop moving long enough so you can get a good look and even take pictures.

I designed the water fall for small birds like hummingbirds and warblers but left some deeper spots for the woodpeckers and robin's. There is a three foot wide pool at the top that a carefully grade the pee gravel so it's about half inch deep of water into a deeper spot that is a couple of inches deep, the water comes up from the bottom as this is also a filter for the pond then run's down over the waterfall that has small streamlets and and rocks that are almost flat so the water is very shallow for the hummingbirds.

Yellow Warbler (Setophaga petechia) in the Black Twinberry

We enjoy the show while sitting on the deck but sometimes I like to take pictures so I have to get closer, I use a blind and the minimum focus distance of the my 400 2.8 is ten feet so I am shooting around twelve feet away, I will put on a extension tube to get closer or if the light is bright enough I will use the 1.7 teleconverter.

Orange-crowned Warbler (Oreothlypis celata)

I will place some perches for them to land on that has a good background but you don't have much time before there in the water getting we.

Black-throated Gray Warbler (Setophaga nigrescens)

My camera settings are usually around iso 400, f3.2 with a shutterspeed around 1/200s, with the teleconverter I shoot f5.1 so it's stopped down just a touch.

Townsend's Warbler (Setophaga townsendi)

They can put on a reall show especially the male yellow Warbler, they don't jsut come in once, it's more like a quick dip then preen some them back to the water then preen some more then back in, then gone.\

Yellow Warbler (Setophaga petechia)