The visitors have been identified.
The bird is the Black Phoebe. I have not seen them the last few days and hope they have not left.
They make hit my bees some but there are plenty more where those came from and they can keep pests off my tomato plants too. That is a major plus around here.
The large bee is apparently a Mason Bee. Some google searches indicate this bee is smaller than a honey bee, not the one that visited here. I think there are various sizes within the species. It did its job and I have a lot of small tomatoes already, It is welcome back anytime. According to what I have read there are efforts to develop it as a honey producer since it is non-aggressive and not subject to colony collapse. (Maybe that is because they do not live in colonies in the wild??)
This weekend I hope to do a full hive inspection on both levels. Some of the frames are standard but most are medium size so the larger ones extend down into the lower hive box.
I have an empty hive box all set to move the top hive box onto so I can inspect the lower one.
My brother has offered to help which is appreciated but he knows less than I do. (I own the book.)
We will blunder through and hopefully have a good photographer around to get some bee close ups.
As I told both of them, not to worry I have a good smoker, consider me armed.
Visitors are welcome, just call ahead and let me know. The inspection should happen on Sunday but circumstances may make it happen on Saturday.
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