Pollinator Week
The alliterative Pollinator Partnership (“Protect their lives. Preserve ours.”) has declared June 19–25 Pollinator Week. In that spirit, here from May 30th in Pflugerville come two insect pollinators. The first is a metallic green sweat bee on a square-bud primrose flower (Oenothera berlandieri). The other shows a hoverfly after it had stopped hovering and landed on an opening basket-flower (Plectocephalus americanus).
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Australia’s vast wildernesses are famous for many things, but rock art, specifically one of the largest concentrations of rock art known in the world, isn’t typically one of them.
West Arnhem Land in the Queensland Peninsula hosts an incredible painted record of Man’s relation to his planet, its changes, challenges, and bounty, but a completely new rock art style covering 4,000 years of history shows Aboriginal Australians adapting to the transformation of Arnhem land into the lush riverine environment it is today.
The total collection of painted rock art in West Arnhem Land has been dated to a span of 30,000 years, stretching from just a few centuries ago to back within the last ice age. However, the period between 8,000 BCE and 4,000 BCE was seemingly absent from the variety of images painted onto the sandstone.
So begins an article on the Good News Network titled “Newly Discovered Rock Art Panels Depict How Ancient Ancestors Envisioned Creation and Adapted to Change.” Check it out to learn more.
Other articles on the Good News Network might also appeal to you. A few recent ones are:
“Sealed Vial Reveals the Smell of Ancient Rome With Patchouli Scents From Time of Jesus“
“Cancer Screening Could Predict Tumors Decades Before They Start Growing Thanks to This Discovery“
“Pufferfish Creating Beautiful Underwater Mandalas–A Scene of Pure Peace“
“Single Atom X-rayed For First Time in Breakthrough That Will ‘Transform the World’”
© 2023 Steven Schwartzman
Sweat bees are sweet bees.
Steve Gingold
June 19, 2023 at 5:26 AM
Well said!
Steve Schwartzman
June 19, 2023 at 6:36 AM
Agreed! 🙂
Ann Mackay
June 23, 2023 at 4:03 AM
so very important
beth
June 19, 2023 at 6:11 AM
Yes indeed.
Steve Schwartzman
June 19, 2023 at 6:37 AM
Beautiful photos. Without pollinators life on earth would be very different. As it was once.
Alessandra Chaves
June 19, 2023 at 8:50 AM
Yes, as it was once, and as it still is for plants like ferns.
Steve Schwartzman
June 19, 2023 at 8:54 AM
Pines. Notes though 😉
Alessandra Chaves
June 19, 2023 at 8:58 AM
I’d thought about pines, too, because of an essay by Loren Eiseley I read last week.
Steve Schwartzman
June 19, 2023 at 9:18 AM
Beautiful captures! I observed a metallic bee on a rock rose bloom this morning. I didn’t have my camera with me, but it was lovely to see.
Tina
June 19, 2023 at 11:34 AM
The bee will live on for you in the camera of your mind. The rock roses by the side of our house have been flowering for the past week or two.
Steve Schwartzman
June 19, 2023 at 12:22 PM
We do our best to have something (attractive) for pollinators, but unfortunately we have had only very few bees in the last three years. Before that, that was a constant humming at our trumpet vine.
Pit
June 19, 2023 at 2:58 PM
I’m sorry to hear that your prior bee activity has fallen off in the past three years. The public has read about colony collapse disorder, which may be what has afflicted you.
Steve Schwartzman
June 19, 2023 at 4:14 PM
That could very well be. 😒
Pit
June 20, 2023 at 12:21 PM
Hooray for pollinators and good news. Most of the pollinators here have disappeared for the winter. Here’s another development from Australia which many people consider to be good news. https://www.reuters.com/world/australian-senate-paves-way-landmark-referendum-indigenous-voice-constitution-2023-06-19/
Gallivanta
June 19, 2023 at 11:45 PM
Not till now had I thought about your being back in winter again. Sorry about that. We’ve been thinking about Australia because Eve’s niece who moved to New Zealand and with whom we stayed on the North Island on both of our visits, has now also settled in Australia, where her younger sister moved close to two decades ago.
Steve Schwartzman
June 20, 2023 at 4:45 AM
Perhaps a visit to Australia is on your minds, too.
Gallivanta
June 20, 2023 at 5:57 PM
We’ve thought of it, given that our one visit, in 2005, was for a wedding (of Eve’s younger niece mentioned above), and we got to see only Sydney and a little bit of its surroundings.
Steve Schwartzman
June 20, 2023 at 6:47 PM
Of all the pollinators I’ve seen on basket-flowers, I’ve never noticed a hoverfly. It would be fun to add one to my gallery of visitors to the flowers. In your photo, the raised disc flowers on the left look as though they’re about to give it a good swat.
shoreacres
June 20, 2023 at 4:48 AM
I also imagined the floret at the left as a hand, svelte, and perhaps raised in peace, rather than as a prelude to a swat. I think I’m with you in not previously having seen a hoverfly on a basket-flower.
Steve Schwartzman
June 20, 2023 at 4:55 AM
Long live the pollinators.
I wonder if people will be around in another 30,000 years and, if so, will have anything good to say about us.
tanjabrittonwriter
June 20, 2023 at 5:42 PM
My guess is yes and yes, but I won’t be here in even 30 years, much less 30,000, to find out whether my hunches are right.
Steve Schwartzman
June 20, 2023 at 6:27 PM
Your hunches are more optimistic than mine, but I also won’t be around to find out.
tanjabrittonwriter
June 20, 2023 at 6:29 PM
Compared to 30,000 years, our lifespan is almost nothing.
Steve Schwartzman
June 20, 2023 at 6:49 PM
It’s only a blip on the timeline.
tanjabrittonwriter
June 20, 2023 at 10:52 PM
At the same time, compared to infinity, 30,000 is as nothing, and the same could be said for any finite number, no matter how large.
Steve Schwartzman
June 21, 2023 at 5:58 AM
Pollinators protecting us, great thought. Here we have had bees galore getting into our bedroom. No idea how but many would die quickly. Some we could release by open windows. I have moved out. Guess the swarm nearby will move on. Then we can patch up outside.
navasolanature
June 22, 2023 at 9:56 AM
I’ve heard of home invasions but not of the type you’ve experienced. What an ordeal. I hope you can get safely back in again soon.
Steve Schwartzman
June 22, 2023 at 12:23 PM
Thanks but fortunately only one room which we can keep shut! They seem to be going!
navasolanature
June 22, 2023 at 2:42 PM
Bon voyage to them.
Steve Schwartzman
June 22, 2023 at 9:59 PM
We would have very limited food without pollinators! I’m amazed by how metallic the shiny green bee looks – extraordinary! Here it’s a relief to see lots of bees and hoverflies in the garden again. There appeared to be fewer than usual in spring, and I was worried that the colder winter may have lessened their numbers.
Ann Mackay
June 23, 2023 at 4:07 AM
Fortunately metallic green sweat bees aren’t uncommon in central Texas. I never pass up the chance to photograph one (or at least try—not all attempts lead to a good picture). Yes, without pollinators our food supply would be greatly diminished. It must be comforting for you to see lots of bees and hoverflies now after an iffy spring.
Steve Schwartzman
June 23, 2023 at 5:50 AM