Trees have Eyes

Identification - Xylocopa caerulea, blue carpenter bee.

I first spotted the pair of holes, about a foot apart, in a tree trunk, about three months ago. Ever since then, I have been keeping a daily eye out for activity. There was definitely something going on, as some days I could see what looked like a pile of sawdust at the entrance, other days, nothing. But, I never observed anything go in or come out.

From the size of the hole, half inch across, and what I had read in my research, I suspected a carpenter bee. The main suspect was the blue carpenter bee, as it was on this tree that I last photographed the bee two months ago. At the time however, the bee did not approach the hole.

Today, I decided to photograph the hole as once again, there was a pile of wood dust at the entrance. But, when I examined the preview screen to check the exposure, I could see something inside that was not visible with the naked eye. I took a few more shots and sure enough, it was a blue carpenter bee, sitting up-side-down, keeping a watchful eye on me.

The hole is about ten feet off the ground, so I was unable to get close enough for a decent shot, my tree climbing days are well behind me, but this shot turned out rather well.

Obviously I could not see the bee while focusing, so I focused on the pile of dust and leaned into the shot a tad, to move the focal plane up to the bee. On examining the images, it appears that the pile of dust is actually a pile of pollen and not wood dust, but I could be wrong.

Dave