Kudos to Chris for the awesome picture.
We've all heard loads about Colony Collapse Disorder recently. I've signed up to participate in the Great Sunflower Project in which 2 times per month for the next couple months, I get to spend 30 minutes looking at one of my sunflowers, and counting the bees. Then I'll send the data to researchers involved in the project. Simple, and straightforward.
This specific sunflower is a volunteer from the black oil sunflower seeds we put out for birds each winter. It has more pollen (and bees) than any of the other sunflowers! I'm thinking of planting more soon (because we enjoy a fabulously long growing season here, I don't have to worry about cold temps until mid-November, if not later).
