After days of consideration, a pair of cheekadees has decided to move into the house we made for them.
They are busy gathering moss for the nest from an old pear tree. At the same time a pair of bushtits is building a nest on the neighbour's fir tree, collecting lichens from the same pear tree, and flying back and forth from one tree to the other almost all day.
A Red-tailed bumblebee queen (Bombus mixtus) was also checking out the birdhouse for a potential nesting site, but the cheekadee chased her away.
Some bumblebees, like red-tailed (Bombus Mixtus) and orange rumped bumblebee (Bombus Melanopygus) will sometimes nest in birdhouses if there is an old bird nest still inside.
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| A Red-tailed bumblebee queen (Bombus mixtus) finding some refreshments on a heather before continuing her search for a home |
It's been couple of weeks since warmer temperatures awakened bumblebee queens in Vancouver. After spending the entire winter underground they are busy looking for suitable nest sites. Bumblebee queens do not build their own nests but use abandoned mouse or bird nests, or even insulation in the house attics. It is important that at this crucial time they have a good supply of nectar and pollen. In my garden they will sometimes visit heathers and flowering quince, but their real favourites are red-flowering currant, oval-leaf blueberry (a native blueberry that flowers extra early) and salmonberry. Read more about the bumblebee's life cycle in this guide.
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| A Yellow-faced bumblebee queen (Bombus vosnesenski) on an Oval-leaf blueberry (Vaccinium ovalifolium) |
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| Red-flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum) |
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| A Yellow-fronted bumblebee queen (Bombus flavifrons) on red-flowering currant |
