While sitting atop the cliff in the middle of the Kettle Crest and Colville National forest over the weekend, amongst the many insects to visit me was this little Alkali Bee. She was not very big, smaller than a Honeybee, as you can see compared to my fingers. The Alkali Bees are solitary ground nesting bees that make small burrows in salty-alkali soils. In the forest those soils are generally near rock out croppings that are less covered in soil and vegetation.

While researching this amazing little bee I found this reference to their technique in pollinating the alfalfa flowers. I never knew that the flowers were such that they resisted pollination by "average" insects.

Most importantly - they are willing to pollinate flowers of the pea family, such as the introduced alfalfa, that give a floral “slap-in-the-face”. Alfalfa flowers require a specialized technique because of their complicated structure; they have to be “tripped”. The male and female parts of the flower are not exposed but enclosed inside the lower petal, the “keel”, so called because of its shape. The bee has to land on it and put a little pressure that snaps it open exposing the anthers with their pollen and the stigma.
^Source

Now that I have seen the tunnels I know what to look for on the surface. Little tiny tunnel mounds sticking up and with a number of them located nearby. I have seen them before but now I will look for them specifically. Though I don't have any alfalfa on the farm, it is within a mile of us, I am sure we still have Alkali Bees nesting here.

The beneficial insects are really everywhere. The more I research the more I find that live on or right around the farm.

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