Butte

Hear that buzz? California almond pollination season is approaching. The season usually begins around Valentine's Day, Feb. 14, but we usually see the first-of-the-year almond blooms in mid-January in a hot spot near the Benicia marina. That's where we saw them on Jan.

It's called Coyote Cacher. You can find it here at https://ucanr.edu/sites/CoyoteCacher/. You can sign up for coyote encounter email alerts, report sightings, and see on maps just where the reports have occurred and the level of encounter from simple sightings on up to dangerous/tragic results.

Most of California has a Mediterranean-type climate with cool, rainy winters followed by hot, dry summers. Many of the plants for sale in nurseries need help to survive in this climate, and often require a lot of water during the summer.

"What are YOU doing here?" It was Saturday morning, Jan. 23, and the monarch caterpillar seemed to be sunning itself on a milkweed leaf in our family's pollinator garden in Vacaville, Calif., a Solano County city situated between San Francisco and Sacramento. Yes, Saturday, Jan. 23.

In researching this subject, I recalled the fury of a fellow Master Gardener on this subject and ran across a few articles that echoed this sentiment. Phrases like fast-growing, aggressive, menace, and winning the war were used to describe the struggle to control this pervasive weed.

We're grateful for UC ANR's internal grant that funded projects aimed at Developing Online Educational Resources Targeted at Underserved Audiences.

The 10th annual UC Davis Biodiversity Museum Day will be different this year. It will not be a day--it will be a month, the month of February. It will not be a walk-around event--it will be virtual.

by Melody Kendall To rake leaves or not to rake leaves. That is the question I am a proponent of deciduous trees. I feel that evergreen trees translate into ever messy' trees because they drop debris all year long.

Just because it is wintertime doesn't mean that bees, which are important pollinators for our flowers, fruits and vegetables, don't need food. Plants and shrubs can provide pollen, nectar, or both to bees in our late winter and early spring.

Oh, to find a butterfly in January. Butterfly guru Art Shapiro, UC Davis distinguished professor of evolution and ecology, knows where they are. As mentioned in a previous Bug Squad blog, he spotted a cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae, on Jan.