A new bee…every day
Similar to one last week but different bee and composition. Can’t say much more than I already have about the blanket flower. Looking forward to next summer when there will be several more around here. Guess one more thing: their blossoms persist for a long, long time – and throw pollen all the way through. Great for pollinators!
Really disappointed with the liatris this year. Only a few stalks and pretty anemic at that. Some years are better than others. I think it’s a self-seeder so maybe next year. Only got a few good shots on it and I think that this is one. The bee seems a different color from the those in the three hives we have here. Can’t be sure, of course. I like this shot. Settling, somehow.
…keeps them coming back! Here’s a brown-belted bumble on it. Pollen all over him (I think it’s a drone) and a rare shot of bumbleneck. Those necks fascinate me. Surely a product of millions of years of selection, but they look so strange…and the color – every one I’ve seen is white-ish. And so small for the sizes of the head and abdomen it seems. So interesting to me.
Neatest birdbath ever that birds ignore. Bees don’t though. I’ve said it before, but part of attracting pollinators is providing a good water source for them. Doesn’t have to be fancy. Just make sure you give them a place to stand while they drink. In other words, a bucket won’t work for them. If you use something like a shallow pan, put a few rocks in the bottom that don’t get entirely submerged. They’ll thank you for it.
And look at those tongues!
Didn’t shoot on Wednesday at all for some reason. The day got away from me. So here’s one from Tuesday on the ornamental oregano. Honeybee and a brown-belted bumble. The size difference is amazing. Rare to get focus on both bees. I’ve got a number of shots that have multiple bees – four or five, even – but the focus just doesn’t work. Point is, though, that they just swarm this one. It’s a neat little bush-like thing that seems to tolerate intermittent watering. Get one if you love the pollinators.
These flowers might be my very favorites for bees. Hard to say. Didn’t shoot for long yesterday, but I got some neat stuff on the blanket flowers – natives, bumbles, and some honeybees. Here’s one of those. Love the colors and the shape of the bee.
While this picture is not art, I love the bee in it. The tongue, the pose, her chewed up wings, the pollen, and the translucence of the wing shown in shadow.
Again, from the neighbors’ garden.
Only shot bees for two minutes yesterday – from 09:22 until 09:24 according to the pictures. And…all brown-belteds on sunflowers. Think we’re overdosing on those lately. Look for more over the winter. Seems the season.
So…here’s one at work in the Russian Sage. Pretty cute girl, I think!
Some geraniums in the background. It’s on a blanket flower. They’re everywhere right now. Seems last August around this time they were thick, too. They seem impervious to getting knocked around by the leafcutters. Kind of fun to see the smacking through the lens. Great tongue on this one and pollen all over. I think it’s a drone.
Sort of. If you count the jagged ambush bug as an incidental pollinator. And that’s probably acceptable.
I have a few observations:
It’s so hazy because of the fires here in the West that for most of the day I cannot even see my shadow.
’tis the season for brown-belted bumble drones. They’re everywhere
It’s very, very hot. And dry. Been weeks since any precipitation.
The asters are starting – watch out.
