O. lignaria nests are filling.

I've been out of town without internet connectivity since last Saturday, so I haven't had a chance to look at the bee activity at the Sturm farm for almost a week.  The blue orchard bees seem to have been very busy.  They have plugged quite a few tunnels as of 9:45am this morning.  I count about 60 plugged tunnels in the upper, "KS" Binderboard, and about 43 plugged nests in the lower left Binderboard.  They are apparently also nesting in the O. aglaia boards with smaller tunnels; I count about 24 plugged tunnels in the bottom right board and 3 plugged tunnels in the top right board.   At that time of the morning it was overcast and 50oF, so the orchard bees were not very active.  Some are sitting at the nest entrance.  One female can be seen outside of a tunnel ("KS" Binderboard, third row down, 10th hole from the left), looking like she may be plugging a nest, so apparently it was warm enough for some activity.  I'm pleased to see that nests are filling well.  In fact, I think it's time to put out another empty nest.    

Overcast light makes it easier to see the condition of the plants.  I think that I'm seeing flower buds on the black raspberries.  Black raspberry flowers have small petals, so they may be hard to see at this distance.  For a close look at the flowers, see photos from June 2011, Part 2 of our visit to the Sturm farm. 

The blueberry flowers and buds are very clear on the plants in this light.  In the short time that I watched I didn't see any bees foraging.

I checked the temperature again at 1:47pm; it was sunny and 61oF.  At 5:48pm it was still sunny and up to 64oF.  With the sun out, the shadows make the flowers difficult to see.

I did not see any O. aglaia activity when I watched the nests today.   Probably temperatures in the 60s are a little cool for them.