Bumblebees

If, like me, you remember being told that thing where bumblebees should not be able to fly from the standpoint of aerodynamics, well, I have bad news: it's not true. Apparently, the idea that bumblebees defy the principles of aerodynamics and shouldn't be able to fly originated from a misunderstanding of early aerodynamic calculations in the 1930s.

That said, I made some interesting observations concerning bumblebees.

At present, my big leaf linden tree is displaying in full bloom. The entire tree has been swarmed by a mix of honeybees, bumblebees, flies, and butterflies. There is no agreeable way to put this: the bumblebees really are bumblers. They are sorta chunky to begin with. And when the wind knocks the branches around a little, I noticed a few bumblebees plummeting from the flower clusters, seemingly unable to hang on. After freefalling for a foot or so, the bees would crank up their wings and fly up into the flowers for another run.

To be fair, it could be their 'style' is to freefall before launching at the next flower. I don’t know, but I rather enjoyed watching them.  Normally, honeybees get all the attention.

Finally, bumblebees do one thing for me that a honeybee cannot do: they pollinate huckleberries. Due to the structure and orientation of huckleberry flowers, honeybees are unable to access lunch there and ignore them. Bumblebees grasp the huckleberry blossoms and 'buzz pollinate' them, rattling free what they want.

Thank you, bumblebees.

A Bumblebee at Work in my Tree

—Mitchell Hegman