Bees, Birds, and Lime Meringue Pie

Fresh lime meringue pie

The air is still, and the temperature is 78° F. When the air conditioning unit on top of the elementary school behind our back yard is off, the sounds of birds in the trees are distinct, compared to the city white noises in the background - cars, distant heat pumps in the neighborhood, the occasional bits of conversations. It was a perfect evening to eat a generous portion of lime meringue pie and enjoy a cup of hot coffee in the garden - lavender, roses, Asiatic lilies, impatience, Shasta daisies, coreopsis, echinacea, vinca, basil, tomato, pepper, and lobelia, petunia, and verbena. A perfect mix of dessert and an Annapolis cottage garden - a slight leaning with a taste and a view with an eye towards England, the homeland of the Lady Anne Arundel from times past.

I don't remember in past years, but this summer there seems to be a steady stream of birds flying through the yard, even with us sitting and watching. There is a constant flight pattern of birds headed to the seed and suet feeders - gold finches, house sparrows, house finches, black-capped chickadees, Carolina wrens, downy woodpeckers, mourning 

Lone Apis mellifera on lavender

doves, northern cardinals, and tufted titmouse. They are silent when they cruise in. In the lavender patch next to the patio, bumble bees are continually working the flowers - they too are silent. They have always been abundant in the yard, but honey bees are a rarity. I don't remember seeing them in past years - I know that colony collapse disorder has taken a great toll on honey bee populations nation-wide. So, it was out-of-the-normal when I saw a lone Apis mellifera⁽¹⁾ working the lavender along with its cousins. I don't know where either species hangs out at night, but that the honey bee doesn't bring a hoard of compadre' as a normal population would in healthy times seems an indication this is a sole bee, and not a social one.
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(1) Undergraduate school was great, once I was resigned to the fact that I would be an agronomy major. A whole world of classes opened up, one being Bee Keeping. The supplier of bee keeping supplies was Dadant and Sons, they are still in business. The Hive and the Honeybee was the text, it is still available, and is a classic.