Bird and Bee Blogging

Sunny our sun conure parrot loves to visit our backyard garden, especially now, with eight straight days of monsoon rains nourishing the plants into overdrive. Maybe he thinks his colorful plummage is a good match for the flowering paintbox of the garden.

Our sunflowers have positively exploded in response to the moisture, their golden heads bobbing in the the breeze. We have a large array of them along one wall where one of our wild bird feeders was located for a few years. They were a surprise, as we hadn't planted any sunflower seeds there. The sunflower bounty came from the many seeds that had fallen over time at that spot as the wild birds spread them unknowingly, instinctively. Strangely, the sunflower seeds we did plant, along another wall, didn't sprout. Maybe because that area is home to a second season of many-hued hollyhocks crowding out competitors.

As you can see above, the bees are quite smitten with the sunflowers as well -- a moveable feast of powdery pollen, free for the taking. On this Sunday in monsoon season, our bird and the bees shared the golden glory. And we got to feast our eyes on the fusion.

(Click on photos for larger versions.)