BIRDS BANDED AT HILTON POND NORTH

DURING THE CURRENT PERIOD

5-11 June 2025

The table below shows birds banded during the most recent period, plus each species' tally for the year and the total for each since banding commenced locally in March 2024. New species for this year are in RED.

All photos, videos, maps, charts, and text © Hilton Pond North

On 4 June 2025 we banded on its left leg (see photo above) a recently fledged Song Sparrow, whose age was determined by pointed tail and by body plumage--including disheveled flank feathers peeking out from beneath the bird's wings. Despite its youthfulness, the sparrow showed this week at Hilton Pond North it already knew how to take care of itself, thank you, as it tussled with and ate a couple of succulent green caterpillars gleaned from our Highbush Blueberries.

All photos, videos, maps, charts, and text © Hilton Pond North

All photos, videos, maps, charts, and text © Hilton Pond North

We've not seen many butterflies in our 16 months here at Hilton Pond North, but one largish (wingspan 2.5-3.5"), black and orange-yellow species showed up last spring and again this year. It's got a splendid common name—Great Spangled Fritillary—so called because its markings reminded someone of dots on a pair of dice. (The Latin origin is fritillus, or "dice-box.") Fritillaries are in the Nymphalidae, the world's largest butterfly family with 6,000 species including the Monarch, emperors, and admirals, among many others. The one in our photo, scientific name Speyeria cybele, is distributed coast-to-coast in North America north of the southern tier and into southern Canada. In North Carolina this butterfly is restricted to upper Piedmont and Mountain Regions. Its larval host plants include several native Violets, Viola spp. CAVEAT: Aphrodite Fritillary, S. aphrodite, is very similar in appearance and has an overlapping NC range. We're confident ours is S. cybele, an identification that would be absolute had we been able to get a photo of of wing undersides.

All photos, videos, maps, charts, and text © Hilton Pond North

On 18 April 2025 we saw our first Ruby-throated Hummingbird of the year at Hilton Pond North and had our first banding on the 21st. (During April we also caught two returns from 2024.) Since then things have been agonizingly slow, with no captures or recaptures and few sightings throughout May. Finally, on 10 June we hit the jackpot with the banding of one new hummer and recapture of four returns from last summer. The new bird was a female with light streaking on her throat (above), while the returns included three white-throated females and a male with bright red gorget. It's always good capture new hummingbirds, but previous-year returns are even more fulfilling because they demonstrate site fidelity, returning to the very same site where they were banded after long trips to and from the Neotropics. Returns also give us understanding of hummer longevity when they come back year after year. On 11 June we netted four more returns (one male) and one new female. Although all returns obviously were adults, by mid-month or so we expect to see the first fledgling ruby-throats of the year. After that, local numbers should begin to increase dramatically as the summer season progresses. (NOTE: Our first banded youngster last year was on 2 July.)

Very few of the dozens of bamboo tubes in our Hilton Pond North bee hotel have been used through early June this year. We suspect most have openings that are just too wide. Solitary bees appear to prefer a tube about 3/16" to 3/8" in diameter. (A typical drinking straw is about 1/4".) It turns out our cheapo bee hotel also had tubes only 3" long—much shorter than the preferred 5-6" length. This presents an interesting situation.

Amazingly, female solitary bees have full control over sex of their offspring; they actively decide whether to lay a male- or female-producing egg. Bee sex determination is based on haplodiploidy, in which a female develops from an egg that has been fertilized while a male comes from an unfertilized egg. The mother bee controls this by choosing whether or not to release sperm from her "spermatheca" (a sperm-storage organ) as she lays each egg.

In determining each egg's sex the mother bee apparently uses environmental cues such as nest tube depth, food availability, time of season, temperature, and presence of predators or parasites. From an evolutionary standpoint, female offspring are more valuable because they can lay multiple eggs that pass along the mother bee's genes, so the mother bee lays her female eggs deeper inside the tube where they are safer. Male offspring are less critical long-term and more expendable; the mother bee lays male eggs in chambers closer to the mouth of the nest tube where they are more vulnerable. Thus, if only short tubes are available, the mother bee may lay only male eggs or skip a potential site entirely. (Yikes! This may mean the short 3" tubes on our bee hotel at Hilton Pond North will yield only male bees and may explain why so few tubes were used in the first place.)

All photos, videos, maps, charts, and text © Hilton Pond North

This spring at Hilton Pond North we decided to give a try to a commercially marketed bee hotel. Sources like Amazon have dozens of these for sale in all sizes and shapes (above). We ordered the one in the photo below, priced at $19. (We should note several bee-related organizations also sell bee hotels on-line; some seem more reputable than others, and their products can range $20-$100, or more.) The hotel we ordered arrived fully assembled but falling apart so we had to make a few adjustments before it could even be used. (You get what you pay for, but it WAS a first-time experiment.)

All photos, videos, maps, charts, and text © Hilton Pond North

All photos, videos, maps, charts, and text © Hilton Pond North

It turns out our Amazon "bee hotel" is actually more of a "bug hotel." In addition to numerous bamboo tubes of varying diameters were a half-dozen large wooden dowels with drilled holes. All these were intended to house solitary native bees, but there was also a jumble of wood shavings held in place by woven wire mesh. We learned these may have been included to attract Lacewings, beneficial insects that hibernate in loose, fibrous material like dried grass or pine cones. Come spring they emerge and feed on aphids, mites, and other garden pests. (Unfortunately, wood shavings—especially if allowed to get damp—can also host unwanted insects such as parasitic Wasps, non-native Lady Beetles, or Earwigs.) Our bee hotel also has that vertical slit opening into a hollow area, supposedly because some butterflies overwinter as adults and need more open space to tuck into during cold months. (Alas, surveys show butterflies seldom use such accommodations.)

Despite our bee hotel's apparent shortcomings, we placed it in what most sources say would be an optimal spot on the outside wall of our cabin: Facing south for morning sun, five feet above the ground, and out of the rain beneath a roof overhang. It went up on 1 April before we expected many native bees to be out and about; that said, some bees tuned to the same photoperiod as early Red Maple blooms and flowering dates of spring ephemerals may emerge even sooner, so 1 March might have been a better time to hang the hotel. (Best hanging dates, of course, vary with latitude and elevation.)

By the end of May nearly all holes in the wooden dowels (above) were plastered with mud—a sure sign Mason Bees (Osmia spp.) had placed larvae therein and sealed the opening. If a tube is porous, the bee may line it with a thin layer of mud and nest chambers are separated by mud partitions. In spring a female Mason Bee gathers pollen and nectar she chews into little balls deposited one per chamber, right beside an egg. This nutritious, high-energy pellet serves as food for her larva when it hatches. Eventually the larva spins a cocoon in which it pupates and becomes inactive—a stage called diapause during which the pupa protects from cold, predators, and pathogens. Since Mason Bees have only one generation per year, larvae will be dormant 10 or 11 months until emerging the following spring!

All photos, videos, maps, charts, and text © Hilton Pond North

All photos, videos, maps, charts, and text © Hilton Pond North

Leaf-cutter Bees (Megachile spp.) have similar lifestyles to Mason Bees, except that in unusually warm years they're known to have two generations. The female leaf-cutter uses her mandibles to cut crescent-shaped pieces from leaf edges or flower petals; with these she lines the inside of the tube and construct walls between brood cells in which she lays one egg and the pollen/nectar ball. The tube is then sealed with a finely chewed cud of vegetation (above). While protecting egg and larva, leaf discs in the nest tube help regulate humidity and, in some cases, may even have anti-fungal properties. Adult females do not die immediately but continue nesting for several weeks, often laying 20-30 eggs each.

As we put together this installment we managed to get a photo of a solitary bee (above) possibly making final touches on a nest tube in our bee hotel. (It may be the bee in the photo did not actually make the green, vegetative plug.) Mason and Leaf-cutter Bees are notoriously difficult to identify (especially from photos); species are determined by macroscopic morphological traits such as head size and shape, facial and thoracic hair patterns, mandible structure, and location/color of abdominal hairs—and even the form and materials of nest plugs or partitions. In our attempt to identify the bee above we queried iNaturalist (Bufflehead Mason Bee, Osmia bucephala), BeeMachine (Mason Bee), and several AI sources: Chat GPT and Claude (Blue Orchard Mason Bee, O. lognaria); Galaxy (Mason Bee or Leaf-cutter Bee); and Google Lens (Bumblebee!). Unless we hear from a bee expert, we think we'll just call our mystery insect "unidentified Mason Bee!"

All photos, videos, maps, charts, and text © Hilton Pond North

It's important to remember when solitary bees visit flowers for nectar they also collect pollen and, at the same time, transferring some from one flower to the next. However, instead of carrying pollen in "baskets" on hind legs like Honey Bees and Bumblebees they use a "scopa," a pollen brush made of specialized hairs on the underside of the abdomen. Pollen sticks to these hairs as the bees belly-flop around flower-to-flower, pollinating all along the way.

All photos, videos, maps, charts, and text © Hilton Pond North

Our two tube-nesting bees types are far more economically important than many folks realize. Mason Bees are best known for their value in pollinating early spring crops, especially in cooler climates: Apples, cherries, pears, almonds, and blueberries (Highbush Blueberry, above). Leaf-cutter Bees are most valuable for mid-summer crops, especially in dry, sunny regions: Carrots, legumes (including clovers and vetches used for grazing), and sunflowers. Native Leaf-cutter Bees are actually the PRIMARY pollinators of Alfalfa (below) in the U.S. and Canada and are far more efficient at it than non-native Honey Bees.

With all this in mind, what about our original question—"Bee Hotels: Good or Bad?" Ideally your backyard has sufficient natural areas to accommodate lots of cavity-nesting native bees, but if you really DO want a bee hotel it should be a simple, carefully designed structure (above) that mimics natural nesting cavities in a dry location out of the weather. It should hold tightly packed, removable tubes made of paper (above), cardboard, or natural reeds, each 5" to 6" deep and 3/16" to 3/8" diameter, with smooth interiors to prevent wing damage. (Drilled hardwood blocks can be used, but not pine because of wing-harming splinters.) Tubes should be replaced annually to avoid disease and parasites, while drilled wooden blocks must be discarded after one season unless lined with recyclable straws (below).

Incidentally, A small patch of moist, clay-rich soil near your bee hotel will help Mason Bees construct their nests, while access to lots of leafy garden plants will support leaf-cutter species. And, above all, NO insecticides in your yard—not even mosquito foggers!

All photos, videos, maps, charts, and text © Hilton Pond North; image above courtesy Whitehorse

So, you might ask, what are some NATURAL sites for cavity-nesting bees? Females seek out narrow, enclosed spaces in which to lay: Hollow plant stems, abandoned beetle galleries in dead wood, cracks in tree bark, crevices in rocks, and—one record says—gaps in old snail shells. (We always hate it when a Mason Bee decides to use our pressure washer fittings as a nest site. Even after the bee emerges, it's tedious to remove hardened mud!) Homeowners can provide nest sites by NOT removing tree snags or stumps in which beetles can tunnel and by leaving flower stems uncut in autumn—especially raspberries, Joe-Pye Weed, native sunflowers, Goldenrods, and New York Ironweed. See image above of freshly cut, hollow Bee Balm—the square-stem indicates it’s a mint (Lamiaceae).

There are plenty of inferior bee hotels on the market, so avoid them like the plague. If you really want one, pay for a good one and maintain it properly. You'll feel productive doing things the right way, and our solitary native Mason and Leaf-cutter Bees will be better off for your efforts. Meanwhile, here at Hilton Pond North we'll be plugging up the remaining tubes on our junky $19 bee hotel and recycling it next spring after adult bee occupants emerge. Lesson learned!

All photos, videos, maps, charts, and text © Hilton Pond North

All photos, videos, maps, charts, and text © Hilton Pond North

All photos, videos, maps, charts, and text © Hilton Pond North