November — Agapostemon sp.
The same bee that opened the year in March, at the other end of her season.
Asters are the last thing blooming in Portland, and sweat bees are the last bees working them. When these flowers finish there is nothing left to visit and nothing left to do. The mated females go down into the ground, and everything else dies.
Which is why the aster matters more than it looks. Late-season flowers are not decoration. They are the difference between a bee reaching next spring and not.
Photographed at Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge by Jonathan Swanson.
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