It's frigid outside with no bees or butterflies in sight, but I just came across this great article in the Post about bees!

https://www.washingtonpost.com...

I thought it was the perfect jumping off point to start our 2016 chat about pollinators!

Make sure to check out the slideshow for photos of various species of bees!

SSG - thanks for the link, I had missed the article.

great article, SSG!
And I love the photo!

Don't forget to check out today's Google Doodle! It's the 41st anniversary of the discovery of the Mountain of Butterflies in Mexico, the southern end point of their migration! I can't even imagine what that may have looked like.

https://www.google.com/doodles...

I saw that and was wondering what the occasion was --thanks, SSG!
Someday I have to see that Mountain.

There have been presentations in Leesburg by Nicole Hamilton on the monarchs and their threatened habitat in Mexico. She has excellent slides and has been there twice. She was the push for the milkweed sales at Morven Park that some of you have attended. If I see another one scheduled, I'll post it.

Thanks, Pat--would love to see it!

I saved a ton of seed from tropical milkweed, but Monarchwatch did not want this species from this region. Anybody need any, just holler.

thanks, Sally! I just might take you up on that! I'm not sure how mine will reseed from last year--I ended up with some pod destruction from milkweed beetles.

ecnalg, I'd love to attend one of Nicole's presentations as well

That was a great Adrian Higgins' article about bees; it put a lot of perspective on the honey bee decline issue. I made some "bee hotels" this summer, and some bees made nests in each one. I moved the hotels to shelf in our unheated garage for the winter.

I wonder whether Monarch Watch still wants milkweed seeds, or are they distributing it already? I have lots of common and swamp MW seeds.

I'll let you know, Muddy, when/if I see another one scheduled. Greenthumb and I went to an excellent one a month or so ago on vultures.

Thanks!

Our pair of piliated woodpeckers just showed up at the suet feeder. I suspected as much once the weather got cold enough to freeze the bark on trees and make the bugs disappear.

yaya!
I have two suet cakes out and hope the same thing. Birds have hardly touched my feeders so far.

Lucky you, Ric! I would love to see pileateds in my yard. I haven't seen or heard any for awhile.

My birds are going through a lot of suet, especially when Starlings show up. I usually only see 2-6 of those at a time, fortunately, because they eat it all pretty quickly.

I saw four male quail(s) in the garden this morning. They are early, so I am guessing we are going to have warmer night temps than usual this spring.

I don't think I've ever seen a pileated woodpecker! Must be cool.

Quail are cool, too. I don't think we see them much in our area.

I've never seen a quail!
I hear robins though. We had a half dozen robins on the lawn last weekend.

The poor robins must be fairly confused... Hope they are busy heading *southwest* about now...

http://blog.duncraft.com/2014/...

I had to look this up. This seems like a pretty good article.

OOH OOH I am psyched! I just realized that when the garage is here, I can get a birdbath heater and have the birdbath in good view of the house!!