I think this one is a brown-belted drone, but I’m not entirely sure. Very long bee, compared to others. If you’ve been following along, you can kind of see the scale – and the length compared to the blossoms. Tongue at work, too.
Tag: Bombus griseocollis
Brown-belted Pollenface on a Sunflower
This is the whole shot – no crop. Good detail on the bee’s face, including some pollen grains on the eye. You can also see how and where the sunflower is throwing its pollen. Still cold out, but the river of crocuses is starting to appear.
DoubleBumble on a Sunflower
Looks like they’re both brown-belted bumbles. That doesn’t always happen. The same species, I mean, sharing a blossom. The other thing that rarely happens is having two bees in (near) focus at the same time. But here’s a nice, pollen-covered pair. Couple more months until the crocuses? We’ve had some in January, so here’s hoping. They’re nestled under the snow for now.
Brown-belted Bumble on a Sunflower
This is the whole shot. No cropping. Like the focus on the eye and face. The foreground and background out of focus can be a little tough on some of my shots. There’s a “rule” in photography that the foreground out of focus distracts. Maybe it does. But with bees, and so much of life, keeping the focus in the right spot seems key. Irrespective of whatever else is going on around – both fore and back. And the sunflower doesn’t seem to mind.
That Oregano…
…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.
Double Down on the Oregano
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.
Must be the Season of the Brown-belted Bumblebee
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.
Sunflower Twofer
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.
From Origanum Rosenkuppel to Origanum Rosenkuppel
For some reason I thought this was thyme. So I was gonna make a funny, “from thyme to thyme” as the title. Really fell flat when it turned out to be an ornamental oregano. That said, it’s in full bee-bloom right now. Almost riotous. And it’s a neat plant, despite the light in the picture. Seems to want to spread some – lots of elbows thrown.
Parenthetically, I’ve coined a term for our gardens here. Apparently, there are lots of garden styles: formal, rock, cottage, prairie, traditional, and so on. Tons, depending on the list you look at. But ours here are called MMAyhem gardens. Use your imagination…and go back to the “throwing elbows” comment. They’re just remarkable (I think we’ve got something like fifteen or eighteen discrete gardens here, depending on how one counts) and I do them and you a disservice by only posting single blooms. Need to post some reference shots to do them justice.
Oh, the bee is a Brown-belted Bumble (Bombus griseocollis) and it was sure having a good time on the oregano. And not sharing very well with others of its kind (and not of its kind). Fun to watch. Too many words. Enjoy the pic!
