The Pollinator

So, what exactly is a pollinator? The technical definition of a pollinator is the biotic agent that facilitates the process by which plant pollen is transferred from the male reproductive organs of a flower to the female reproductive organs of a flower to form seeds. Is that still too confusing?

Well, the bee in the above picture is a pollinator. I'll give a simple explanation for any of you who don't know how this works. Bees have a mutual agreement with flowers. They get to collect all of the sweet nectar from the flower that they want, but they also have to take as much pollen with them as they can carry. This way both of them benefit.

The nectar is high protein food for the young of the bees, which they obviously really need. And the transfer of pollen from one flower to another is the way flowers reproduce. So bees are the little gardeners that are responsible for most of the wildflowers that we see. It works out very well for both. More flowers mean more bees, and more bees mean more flowers.

Here you can see this bee really getting in there to collect as much pollen as it can hold. I actually came across this scene by sheer accident. I haven't been to this particular park in over a week, and I haven't had time to see the growth of wildflowers yet this year, until now.

I don't consider myself very knowledgeable with plants quite yet, but I'm probably much better than my self-critical opinion. When I saw these flowers I set out to get a few pictures just to see what came out when I would get to see them. I really never intended to be able to share them, thinking they wouldn't be very good shots.

But then I saw this bee digging around the flowers, so I set my camera lense in its direction. These were more pictures that I didn't think would come out very well. I thought maybe they would be blurry and maybe not anything special. But then I looked at them and saw this pollen covered bee in better shots than I ever hoped for.

Bees are some of the most colorful insects in existence. Insects are all very colorful and interesting if we are able to get a close look. It feels good to be able to share this one with you today. This one is a dull color for a bee but it makes up for it, and then some, by having all of this pollen all over it. Look at the top of its head!

It's amazing the kind of things you can find in nature on a day that you expected to be nothing but quiet. I spent the whole time I was out there following bugs of different kinds. A butterfly even tried to land on my head, several times! I didn't let that happen, but I did get a few pictures of that friendly creature too!

Flowers and pollen covered bees on a very nice late spring day. Not too hot and not too cold. What more could anyone ask for? If you'd like a little more about bees, by coincidence yesterday's Cool Nature Video at Nature Center Magazine showed the inner workings of a honey bee hive.

Nature Center Magazine - Today Emma brings you a new Nature Site of The Week. Go see what her featured site is this week. If you visit the featured site and leave a comment, they might just return the favor. And you could even make a new friend.