I hope this is a trend

I seem to be seeing more honey bees on my walks this summer. Previously, in posts on September 2, 2009 and on September 23, 2009, I mentioned that I was seeing more bumble bees than I'd ever remembered seeing. I attributed this to the loss of honey bees due to Colony Collapse Disorder (this is a newer article on this - see my September 2, 2009 post, "Lots of bumble bees",  for a pointer to a Wikipedia article). While this article says that things are not getting any better and are actually getting worse, I hope I'm seeing the first signs of hope. Of course, things can vary quite a lot region by region. Perhaps this is only local good news because our winter wasn't as bad as some other regions.

Then again, I'm not doing a scientific count. My impressions may be way off. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention last year. Maybe I was distracted by all the butterflies and bumble bees I saw last year. Since there is nothing I can do about this problem and what I write here won't really make any difference, I choose to be optimistic. I choose to see improvement. I choose to have my impressions see a turning tide. If you are a lawmaker funding research into correcting this problem, don't listen to me!

Sorry this picture isn't very clear. I had a hard time focusing on this worker as she flew from flower to flower (here on a thistle flower). Forgive the pun but she was as busy as a bee.