Spent part of February in Aysén, Chile. Kept seeing things that made me want to slow down, like these two bumblebees. The orange one was drenched with rain and clinging to a thistle, so I’m not at all confident in its ID, but I think it is a bombus dahlbomii, which is endangered and indigenous. It is also called the Patagonian Bumblebee. Only saw this one. The other was abundant and easy to find. I believe it is bombus ruderatus, which is imported and invasive, brought to South America from Europe in order to pollinate red clover. I feel fortunate to have see the endangered bee. I looked for more of them but never saw another.

photo of a handheld watercolor sketchbook on a black background, open to a page with sketches of two bumblebees. The one on the left is striped yellow, black, and white. The one on the right is all orange.