beespeaker
LightNews LightNews
banner
loriweidenhammer.ca
beespeaker
@loriweidenhammer.ca
660 followers 380 following 640 posts
Writer, artist, and advocate for native bees in British Columbia. Author of the revised edition of Victory Gardens for Bees: A DIY Guide for Saving the Bees.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by beespeaker
debmaluk.bsky.social
another gloomy, cloudy day brightened by the Evening Grosbeaks and some lovely hoarfrost☺️
A male Evening Grosbeak on a hoarfrost covered branch. He is yellow with black and white wings. His beak is pale yellow and he has a bright yellow bar on his forehead. His feet are pink. A male Evening Grosbeak on a hoarfrost covered branch. There are frosty berries in the background. A female Evening Grosbeak on a hoarfrost covered branch. There are frosty red berries on the left and out of focus branches and berries in the background. She is pale yellow and brown with black and white wings. a female Evening Grosbeak on a hoarfrost covered branch. She has her back to the camera and is looking down and to the right. She has black and white wings and black tail feathers with white spots and white tips.
December 26, 2025 at 11:32 PM
loriweidenhammer.ca
Subtle winter colours and textures. #ponderosapine #rockcreekbc
Pine cone and needles with two mushrooms and grainy snow.
December 28, 2025 at 11:58 PM
loriweidenhammer.ca
A nice flock of Bohemian waxwings for the Rock Creek Christmas bird count with @dragonbyte.ca.
December 28, 2025 at 11:56 PM
Reposted by beespeaker
franzanth.bsky.social
Greetings, chordate comrades. #InverteFest is upon us.

tl;dr: Over the last 7 days every April, August, and December, we invite you to show the internet your coolest bugs & slugs.

Go find critters, post your art, write wikipedia pages, do whatever you like to celebrate invertebrates with us!
What is #InverteFest? It's a periodic event where we invite you to celebrate the overlooked invertebrate fauna around you and share the joys of discovery online. #InverteFest takes place every April, August, & December over the last 7 days of the month. Going out? 1. Find invertebrates 2. Share observations online using the hashtag #InverteFest 3. Interact with others who are celebrating the event NOT Going out? - Post your squid painting - Stream a game where you play as a crab with a knife - Selfie with your 27 beetle enamel pins - Write wikipedia pages Questions? ask franzanth / maureenbug / saimihanma More info and ideas on: invertefest.com
August 4, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Reposted by beespeaker
saskajanet.bsky.social
Common Ravens have remarkable neck feathers (“hackles”) that they can raise or lower to punctuate their vocalizations. How I love these amazing creatures! #birds 🌿
Head and shoulders portrait of a huge, black bird.
December 28, 2025 at 12:37 AM
Reposted by beespeaker
burrowingowl.bsky.social
Good morning! 🪶
Burrowing owl standing on one leg.
December 28, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Reposted by beespeaker
pnwkate.bsky.social
In the Fraser river valley near Harrison BC 🇨🇦with a beautiful varied thrush (bald eagle in the trees above) what a beautiful bird! Christmas Day 25 Dec 2025 ✨🎄✨
December 26, 2025 at 1:33 AM
Reposted by beespeaker
frwildflowers.bsky.social
Mentzelia laevicaulis, our Giant Blazingstar, blooming at Browns Park #nativeplants

#FallBackFlowers #FallBack to June 25 🌿

🎄 Merry Christmas!🎄
Two bright, large yellow flowers with innumerable yellow stamens
December 24, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Reposted by beespeaker
grays.art
2025 top ten: #8

Female Dark-veined longhorn bee
(Melissodes trinodis)

on homegrown sunflower 8-21-25
in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood.

#xmas #eastcoastkin #insectThursday #macro #photography #native #bees #pollen #flowers #nature #art #gardens #gardening #bugSky #pollinators #sunflower
Pollen face & tongue extension.
December 24, 2025 at 11:00 PM
loriweidenhammer.ca
Merry Christmas from me, @dragonbyte.ca and MoMo (the neighbour's cat).
Darren on the couch with an orange cat.
December 24, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Reposted by beespeaker
rockinbones.bsky.social
#MacroMonday #Inverts🐝
Half-black Bumble I think .
Half-black Bumble Bee
December 22, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Reposted by beespeaker
jeffontherock.bsky.social
Pink Ghost Pipe plant at my hometown, Logy Bay, #Newfoundland Canada. Ghost Pipes are most commonly white, but some have pink or even red colouration. Pic from a couple of years ago, in August.
#wildflower #flower #botany #plants #fungifriends
Photo of a cluster of pink ghost pipe flowers in a forest. The flowers are approx 7” high (approx 18cm).
December 22, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Reposted by beespeaker
jeffontherock.bsky.social
Mother in the nest with her chicks.
Cladonia #lichen with a little nearby Juniper Haircap Moss. Northwest Territories, Canada. #fungi #fungifriends #moss #bryophyte #botany
Photo of a Cladonia lichen podetia that looks like a bowl with several smaller podetia growing out of it.
December 18, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Reposted by beespeaker
emtomology.bsky.social
New study: backyard mosquito sprays lead to insecticide levels high enough to kill pollinators, and sprays travel easily into neighboring yards. stacksjournal.org/article/ande...
An initial assessment of risk to pollinators from mosquito control in residential settings - Stacks Journal
Peer-reviewed research - An initial assessment of risk to pollinators from mosquito control in residential settings
stacksjournal.org
December 18, 2025 at 10:21 PM
Reposted by beespeaker
mariannedenton.bsky.social
Elephant's Trunk Nebula
Pedicularis groenlandica (Elephant's Head, Little Pink Elephant, Elephantella)

#FallBackFlowers
The Elephant's Trunk Nebula (IC 1396A) is a concentration of interstellar gas and dust within the much larger ionized gas region IC 1396 located in the constellation Cepheus about 2,400 light years away from Earth.[1] The nebula is a dark, dense globule that gets its name from its appearance at visible light wavelengths, where there is a dark patch with a bright, sinuous rim. The bright rim is the surface of the dense cloud that is being illuminated and ionized by a very bright, massive multiple star (HD 206267) that is just to the east of the Elephant's Trunk Nebula . The entire IC 1396 region is ionized by the massive star, except for dense globules that can protect themselves from the star's harsh ultraviolet rays. The Elephant's Trunk Nebula is now thought to be a site of star formation, containing several very young (less than 100,000 yr) stars that were discovered in infrared images in 2003. Two older (but still young, a couple of million years, by the standards of stars, which live for billions of years) stars are present in a small, circular cavity in the head of the globule. Winds from these young stars may have emptied the cavity. The combined action of the light from the massive star ionizing and compressing the rim of the cloud, and the wind from the young stars shifting gas from the center outward lead to very high compression in the Elephant's Trunk Nebula. This pressure has triggered the current generation of protostars. two stalks of Elphants Trunk from Wikipedia: Pedicularis groenlandica is an erect plant that can grow to a height of 60 centimetres (24 in), but may be only 10 centimetres (3.9 in) tall. The leaves have a pointed tip and are 20–150 millimeters long and 5–250 millimeters wide. They strongly resemble fern leaves being divided to the leaf central leaf vein, and sometimes the leaf segments being slightly divided again with the leaf edges toothed or double toothed. The surfaces of the leaves are smooth. When the leaves first emerge in the spring they are distinctly red in color, but with lengthening days an increasing amount of green chlorophyll begins to mask most of the red pigments. The stem is topped with a large inflorescence of bright pink to purple or white flowers. Pedicularis groenlandica may flower between June and September, with flowering beginning at lower altitudes. The inflorescence is unbranched and will grow indeterminately and is always taller than the basal leaves. The dense flowering spike will measure between 4 and 15 centimeters, in exceptional cases reaching as much as 25 centimeters. Each plant will have either one or two flowering stems and each will have between 20 and 70 flowers. The pedicels attaching the flowers to the main stem are 0.5–1 millimeters and the flowers resemble a pink, reddish-purple, or purple head of an elephant to a remarkable extent. The petals (corolla) are 5–8 millimeters long, and usually have a purple tube of 3–5 millimeters. The forehead of the elephant is actually a structure that protects the pollen from the weather called a galea, and ranges in size from 1.5–3 millimeters, and extends into the long slightly coiled beak that resembles the elephant's trunk of 5–18 millimeters; the lateral lobes of the flower resemble an elephant's ears. This "remarkable resemblance" is often noted by both professional botanists and amateur wildflower enthusiasts.
December 18, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Reposted by beespeaker
dickcannings.bsky.social
Wonderful to hear this project has been completed—I remember talking about it almost 20 years ago at NCC board meetings. Sometimes good things take time! Thanks to all the groups and individuals who stepped up to get it done.
vancouversun.bsky.social Vancouver Sun @vancouversun.bsky.social · 12d
More than 450 square kilometres of forestry land now protected in southeastern B.C. vancouversun.com/news/forestr...
December 18, 2025 at 7:39 PM
loriweidenhammer.ca
The local garbage gobbler has been maintained in excellent condition! #rockcreekbc www.tranbc.ca/2014/04/08/w...
A vintage garbage can in the shape of a cartoon bug.
December 18, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Reposted by beespeaker
ron-kichurchak.bsky.social
December 16, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Reposted by beespeaker
crawlieswithcri.bsky.social
#BirdOfTheDay #WinterBirds

Going with "Classic Winter Bird + Surprise! Winter Bird"

(well, not a surprise in my yard, but often surprising to folks)

#becurious #birds🪶
photo of an oregon form dark eyed junco and a male anna's hummingbird sitting on the small, snow covered branches of a snowball bush. the junco is down left, in profile facing right. the anna's is upper right in 3/4 profile facing front slightly left.
December 16, 2025 at 2:53 PM
loriweidenhammer.ca
Some exciting news! I have been working on writing a collection of meditations and I've just started to record them. I've found meditation a life-changing practise and I've put my heart and soul into creating these. Have you tried different forms of meditation? #sublimebeelines #bees
A Melissodes bee in a gumweed flower. The title of my meditation series is Sublime Beelines: Guided Meditations for Creating a Calm Buzz in your Heart. A bee in Monarda with the dedication to the people that informed my meditation practise.
December 14, 2025 at 7:32 PM
Reposted by beespeaker
grays.art
Best of 2025 count down: #18

Male Two-spotted longhorn bee
(Melissodes bimaculatus)

on butterfly milkweed 7-6-25
at the West Ridge Nature Park

#stunday #ColorADay #OrangeSun #eastCoastKin #bugsky #macro #photography #native #bees #flowers #pollinators #bloomscrolling #insects #nature #chicago
Lateral view of bee facing right, with white, brown and black fur, blue eyes, and long antenna, atop bright orange florets, dark olive green background.
December 14, 2025 at 5:00 AM
Reposted by beespeaker
burrowingowl.bsky.social
Good morning! 🪶
Burrowing owl tilting his head more than 90 degrees to the side.
December 6, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Reposted by beespeaker
whysharksmatter.bsky.social
A rare bright spot for whales: Decades of conservation pay off for endangered population in Canada news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-ra... 🧪🦑🌎
A rare bright spot for whales: Decades of conservation pay off for endangered population in Canada
Populations of northern bottlenose whales (Hyperoodon ampullatus), playful animals that resemble large dolphins, stretch across the Atlantic Ocean, with each group of whales living year-round in a…
news.mongabay.com
December 5, 2025 at 8:03 PM
loriweidenhammer.ca
Made a batch of very rustic lefse. The local potatoes are so tasty--nice waxy yellow ones. Good served warm rolled with butter and I also made a salmon salad with furikake to roll inside. (Japanese Norwegian fusion!)
Potato flatbread on a plate.
December 4, 2025 at 6:38 PM
loriweidenhammer.ca
Another lovely walk on the KVR trail! #rockcreekbc
Two women walking on a snowy path. An eagle's nest in a distant tree. Snow-covered hills and soft clouds.
December 4, 2025 at 6:36 PM