For the last week or so, I’ve been seeing and enjoying having an increased number of pollinators around. Spring is finally in full swing and our insects are returning to active lifestyles. It doesn’t hurt that there are plenty of flowers blossoming either, and among them are the blackberries and dewberries. Among the pollinators there are many old favorites, like this common eastern bumble bee (Bombus impatiens). There have also been a few that I don’t recognize and I’ll be showing you guys some of them in later posts. These particular bees are, as their name implies, quite common in the eastern United States and Canada. They are one of our most prolific pollinators not only for wildflowers, but for quite a few crops as well. They’ll be with us through most of the summer and will be vital to pollinating many, many types of plants. I’m always happy to see them around, not only because they are such great pollinators, but they’re also generally very docile both with people, but also with the other insects.