Our home is surrounded by a large native pollinator garden, which attracts bees, butterflies and other insects from May until October. This Eastern Carpenter bee was the first I’d seen in 2021, and is likely one that nested over the winter in a hole it created in the porch ceiling. It was flying close to the ground and made a “beeline” through the newly emerging echinacea leaves and last year’s bracken. Carpenter bees are solitary creatures. The male has a white face, while the female’s face is black. They emerge in the spring to mate, after which the female returns to her nest to lay eggs.