Sugar maple is in bloom, shaking its anthers in the breeze. This species is supposedly wind-pollinated, but looking closely at the male flowers I saw thousands of bees, wasps, beetles, and even a butterfly working at the blooms. I estimated about thirty thousand insects on the tree’s flowers at any one time. Some were gathering pollen, but many had their heads buried in the bells from which the filaments and anthers hung. Could there be nectar or sugary exudate up there? Why else would a spring azure butterfly systematically work its way across the tree’s flowers? I can find no reference to sugary lures in any of the sources that I’ve read. I’d welcome other observations or insights…