This month I finished Reading Lars Chitka’s “The Mind of a Bee” (2022). I’ve been reading it since December. The reading time isn’t because the book is a particularity thorny read; I think it’s one of the most accessible pieces of science writing I’ve ever read. I really just had to pause after each chapter, and take some time to ponder bees. I’ve been growing some verbena and speedwells on my patio, and while reading the book, I would have to stop for long stretches to watch the bees at work around my assortment of purple flowers. I’ve gotten obvious bumblebees and western honeybees, as well as some bee species I am less able to immediately identify. Some sort of sweat bee, a much rarer visitor than the honeybee, as well as some tiny black bees of similar size to the tiny flowers of my verbena.

The Mind of a Bee is a wonderful read. It moves along at an easy pace, even as the author unveils some incredible, dizzying depths within the natural world. Even the most difficult of figure or graph is deftly explained. While discussing learning in bees, memory and path-finding, and bee dancing and communication, the book also delves into the history of bee study. The human histories and relations explored in the book in these portions were an added bonus to the main subjects of the book.

The book approaches its subject – the bee, of course – with a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and empathy. The final line made me cry. I can’t believe how wondrous and alien bees are. I can’t believe how deep their inner lives and workings are compared to what I assumed. I can’t believe how many experiments have been done involving training bees to learn new facts! I can’t believe it was possible for me to be even more fond of bees than I already was. A great book for anyone with even a passing curiosity or fondness about bees to read.

I also read “Oiseaux d’Alsace-Lorraine Franche-Comte,” published by Editions Artémis in 2017. This one’s a re-read, to re-familiarize myself with who else I may be sharing my environment with. I read it every time I get to visit family, so it’s a particularly cherished and rare read.

The entries for Gallinule poule-d’eau (Eurasian moorhen – black with a red and yellow bill) and Foulque macroule (Eurasian coot – black with a white bill) face each other (pages 88 and 89) in the water birds section, and the images are swapped. The length of time between visits is always long enough that I forget this fact, and then am temporarily confused after walking along the Ill. Did I see a Gallinule poule-d’eau or a Foulque macroule? It was the black one with the white bill and the book says that’s a Gallinule poule-d’eau but that just can’t be right (and it isn’t). Maybe someday I will be lucky enough to visit family frequently enough that not enough time passes in-between visits that I have forgotten this bird guide trick.

Over the last few visits, I’ve been really hoping to see a Pic vert (European green woodpecker – green). This trip, sitting in the passenger’s seat while driving through the Vosges, I caught a glimpse of dull yellow-green flashing amidst the trees. I craned my neck to see as the car zipped by. The blur of green landed, feet gripping the bark of a tree trunk, body upright – a woodpecker position surely. Whatever the bird was, it was instantly lost to the trees and the switchbacks. I have to hope that it was a green woodpecker. It almost has to be, with the tantalizing coloration and the way it landed on the tree. I don’t typically mark down a bird in my bird watching book unless I am absolutely confident of what I saw. Between the trees rushing past and the speed of the car, I can’t be sure. But I hope.

I’ve marked down a Pic vert in my bird watching book.

My several days of waffling could have been avoided, if only we had some sort of “bird watching from your car” guide.

Following this thought, I dove into another re-read, this time of Chris Helzer’s “A Field Guide to Roadside Wildflowers At Full Speed.” I read this around when it first was published in 2019, at about the time it went viral. This is a very tongue-in-cheek guide to wildflower identification, when traveling by car at high points of speed. The flowering season and description for each flower are full of helpful information about each flower, while the habitats (roadsides, naturally) and similar species notes take one a more humorous tone.

Similar species
Anything yellow.

Hysterical.