Female valley carpenter bees are glossy black all over, but this one had a ring of bright yellow pollen on her thorax. At first I thought it was a new species, but no, she was just dressed in powdery finery. The male X. sonorina is golden brown with green eyes — I hope to see one some time soon. Perhaps I shouldn’t be wishing for carpenter bees around our tumbledown old house—they are so named because they tunnel through wood to make their nests. They avoid painted or stained wood, but our place has plenty of exposed timber they might find suitable for excavating.