My Guard Bee

I usually don't get an extra hour to hang out, but I did the other day. 

Around 4 pm I took the stack of magazines that have come my way as castoffs from various relatives -- mostly food magazines --  sat down on the lounge chair in my backyard patio and began turning pages. Usually quickly, sometimes stopping, ripping out a good-looking recipe here and there.

Now I've sat in that lounge chair maybe three times in the year that I have it. 

Bees like this backyard. Flowers pop out in a couple of months and the population of bees creates a soundtrack like a steadily passing train. But now, in April, I saw a solitary bee buzzing around. 

I saw him. Then kept reading. 

I saw him chase off a wasp until the wasp left the confines of the fence. Then the bee came back. That's when I noticed he was pacing...in the air. From one end of the patio to the other. Then back again. Buzzing left. Buzzing right. Repeatedly. Staying. 

Once in a while he'd stop mid-flight and just flap his wings standing still in the air. A couple of times he buzzed near me like he wanted to see if he recognized me. Then he'd start doing his -- literally -- bee-line flight from one end to other. In a nice straight line.

?????

I don't know. Who knows what's in the mind of bees.

Next day I come out thru the patio to get to the car. There he is again. Doing the same thing. Back and forth. Chasing away flying bugs that happen to pass through. Even a high flying bird got his attention and he flew up high above the patio to "chase" that one away. Then back to the flight-pacing.

Next day, he's back again. In fact, he's out there right now. Flying from one end to the other. When I come home and open the gate, there he is flying. I say hi and he flies by.

I had to looked this up. 

Lo and behold, there is such a thing as Bee Patrol.

Here's what Colorado State University Etymology department had to say on the web (for more see link under "links" list).

(BTW, Bumble bees are from the bombus species -- great word, no??)

Male bumble bees go on "patrol flights" to scent-mark their territory. They might scent-mark twigs, leaves, tree trunks. They might do this for a few hours and then continue flying their flight routes, occasionally "pausing on the wing."

That's just what he did! I didn't see him doing the scent-marking -- but who knows what that looks like. AND who knows, too, what that scent is? I'd love to smell it. Might be a wonderful perfume. Or just that bee's individual scent like us people have. (we people?) (we, the people?)

Their flight height also tells the science guys something. They think it distinguishes what type of bumble bee they are. My patrol bee flies at about 4 feet from the ground...kinda around my chin level or a bit higher (i'm 5' 1.5").

Another thing: some species scent-mark the edges of leaves, some the whole thing, or every leaf! Some do it real slow, some really fast. And the stuff they secret for the scent-marking is called pheromone. Ah, another new thing. I'l look it up: (hang on...)

Okay. Got it. It's a chemical or hormone that elicits a response in another member of the species...there are alarm pheromones, food trail pheromones, and sex pheromones.

Okay, there's more...supposedly we have them, too. Just for the sexy stuff. One study apparently showed that a woman's body naturally adjusts her menstrual cycle when exposed to the smell of a male underarm. The smell of sweat is where the pheromone is and it's been called an aphrodisiac.  

This bee is really up to something.

So there you have it.

Why do I suddenly have a Guard Bee? 

Probably because birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it. 

Well, it is spring. 

Just looked out the window. He's there. And he's awfully cute.