I see lots of natives in the asters – especially the sweat bees. The honeybees make the asters pulse with life…but I so so so seldom get a bumble in them. Here’s one from yesterday. Got a few great shots of it working on the flowers, but I’m a sucker for in-flight shots. So that’s what you get today. So many asters, too. They change and hybridize and wander through the garden. Gorgeous! Oh, and there’s a bonus honeybee that’s almost in focus.
Month: September 2021
A Mess in the Blanket Flowers…Still Going Strong
Once these start in the late spring, they just don’t quit. Here’s a great look at a honeybee in the blanket flowers which are in the (relatively) new parking strip garden. Sure it’s getting cooler. Sure it’s fall. But all of these lifeforms have no quit in them. Guess the hard freeze will knock them out, but that doesn’t detract from the point. They just go.
Can’t for the Life of Me…
…recall the name of this bee. Looks very much like a longhorn and it’s in the sunflower, but I don’t think that’s it. If I can reclaim that bit of my leaky brain, I’ll edit the post. Meantime, enjoy the bee and the neat, red-tinged sunflower. Beautiful.
In other news, I’m trying to get the resources and location together for a gallery here in Ogden, Utah – and the process is rife with hiccups and dead ends. Please send good thoughts this way. I think it’s time for that to happen.
Bonus: Banded Garden Spider
Got a text on Saturday from our neighbors to the east inviting me to come and photograph a really neat spider that was living in the lavender. I was out of town and regretted not being able to shoot (especially after seeing the phone pics).
So…this morning I grabbed my camera and had a look. Really, really neat, colorful critter. Big, too! Not entirely pleased with how it came out…so I might go back for more. But…it’s a fun shot. We have the best neighborhood!
Golden and Clover (over and over)
That really didn’t work, did it? I try to shoot the clover in the grass when I can and it doesn’t often work. Don’t know if it did this time. At least there’s a bee on it. There’s something appealing to me about the busy, randomness of this shot, though. And she’s today’s bee. And that matters somehow.
More Tongue on the Salvia
Another good look at a tongue…and face and eye and just about everything. And the salvia goes and goes and goes and goes. Really pleased with the detail and shapes in this shot.
Great Tongue on the Russian Sage
Finally one on a Russian Sage that doesn’t belong to the neighbors. That neat background is a pinkish/blueish boulder in the garden. And the bee is gorgeous!
Losing the Mojo?
It’s been almost two weeks since I picked up a camera for bees. Got some wild horses and wild burros, but no bees. Traveling too much. So yesterday, when I picked up the camera for a few minutes, something seemed off – a little foreign, even. Wasn’t feeling it.
Didn’t last, however, and seemed nice to slip back into the familiar. I think I got some nice late summer/early shots. Those asters are going wild right now. Here’s one. I like it.
The Third of that Three-fer
Another bumble on the cone flower. This one may be a golden…or may not. Third of three bees (and note there’s no honeybee in the three-fer, tho there well could have been) on the cone flower. This one was shot in some pretty bad light so there’s a bit of a graininess to it, but it’s a great look at her face.
The Second of the Three-fer
A lefcutter this time. And an especially golden one, which again is rare in my experience. Love the eye on this one. The flower is looking a little ratty, but notice how it’s still showing and throwing pollen. Don’t deadhead these cone flowers until the bees start to ignore them. They’re kind of strange in that they keep opening up and sharing pollen long after the petals get nasty.
