This weekend my mom called me outside because she had found a bee crawling around near our back porch. As you don't often see bees in February, I thought I'd have a look. Carpenter Bees winter in old nest tunnels, hibernating until they emerge in early spring to find a mate and of course some food. Sure enough, there was a poor Carpenter Bee (
Xylocopa virginica), grounded because of the cold. But really, it wasn't that cold outside: he must have flown out of his tunnel due to the warmer weather and then gotten trapped in the shadows. I saw instantly that the bee was a male (the yellow cuticle on the face being the ID there) and that it was indeed struggling. Shivering all over, the bee was crawling along the concrete in search of warmth. After snapping some photos, I scooped him up in a Styrofoam cup and placed him in the sun. Within moments he had flown away. It's always a nice feeling to have helped a creature in need!
Some of these photos may look the same, but I was able to capture some nuances, which you'll see if you look closely from shot to shot.
References (about wintering Carpenter Bees):
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/1699/
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2074.html
http://ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/carpenter-bees
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