A hearty welcome to spring, which officially begins at 5:58 p.m. on Wednesday, the vernal equinox. As if to greet the season, a familiar sound is revving up now: bee buzzing. Most of us probably take ...

Kelly Schultz peered into the lavender blooms of a bee balm plant and gasped. Gathering nectar was a fuzzy insect with a black head and a rusty-colored patch on its yellow back. It was the federally ...