Most of the purple thistle plants (Cirsium horridulum) have finished blooming by this time of year, but on my latest trip to Cedar Key, I found an area where quite a few of them were still flowering. There were flowers of all stages from tiny buds to ones that had gone to seed, and they were attracting a lot of pollinators. Among those pollinators were quite a few eastern bumblebees (Bombus impatiens). The bees were flying all over from flower to flower, enjoying the nectar. When they found the right flower, they would stay on it for quite a while. They would slowly crawl around, probing between bristles to find the nectar. It’s actually very interesting to watch. It was easy to tell when they found a good place because they would bury their heads, sometimes up to the wings, in the flower and stay there for up to a minute. Sometimes, you could see their little bodies bobbing as they swallowed the sweet nectar. Then it would be off to the next stop.