May Day bees

May Day Bees: Photos and text by Sarah Phelan

For the past month, the bees in my neighborhood have been all over the local Pride of Madeira. It's here that they have been collecting gobs of blue pollen that stick onto their fur as they sip nectar deep within the pink and blue blossoms. But now that these plants are almost bloomed out, where are the bees headed in their quest to follow the nectar flow?

Somewhere in a meadow on Alameda Island, the grasses are so tall that they make me feel like a child, when I walk there. But these wind-pollinated grasses have little to offer the bees. Instead, the bees of May are attracted to a bush that grows in that same meadow and bursts into bloom around this time of year.

Usually, this bush is covered with unassuming green leaves, also of little interest to the bees. Only now each stem carries small white buds that are filled with yellow pollen and are exploding like kernels of popcorn.

Yes, it's here that my neighborhood bees are headed.

A pilgrimage that includes fuzzy black and yellow bumble bees, as well as my neighbor's honey  bees

It's here that the bees aregathering up blobs of pollen and pasting them into their leg baskets.

It's here that the bees are bumbling in a intoxicated  swoon, as spring  turns towards summer , and the days get longer .

Hey, it's here that even this fly is nectaring today. Happy May Day!