A new bee…every day
Here’s a pollen-covered girl from last july. On the cone flower again. I like the good look you get at the pollen all over her face – and at her mandibles. Very cute little one!
Just got back from a remarkable winter photography trip to Yellowstone. WOW. Anyway…
On the ever-reliable cone flower. Normally, I crop the photos some to give a good look at the bee – or for the sake of composition. Not this one. I must have been really close on this one. From late July. I love the eye on this one. So different from the honeybees.
Will always be Cornflower to me. Wrong.
Great face. Great pollen basket. Great eye. Great bee.
Enjoy!
Seems August is a really busy month. Didn’t even pick up my camera yesterday so today’s shot is from earlier this month. I especially like what the diagonal penstemmon adds to the shot. Nothing all that special about this one – which is really saying something. Isn’t nature herself gorgeous?
Beautiful face and eyes. Nice wings, too. Not much I don’t like about this shot. Seems to capture the critter perfectly in its element – doing what it does.
Similar to yesterday but different. Only the bee was lit up for a second as you can see. One of our natives here in Utah. Great eyes!
It’s on a cone flower, btw. Don’t know why I said aster initially.
This might be a better illustration of what I described a couple of days ago. Pollenbutt, too.
Yesterday, on the way back from errands, I stopped at the Ogden Botanical Gardens to shoot some bees. Really like the place. While there is a skeleton full-time staff directing the enterprise, much of the work on the upkeep is done by volunteers.
The other neat thing about it is that it’s free – and open from sunup to sunset. In my travels, I often look for municipal/public gardens. Normally, there’s a cost to enter – and lately, with the covids, you have to make an appointment to enter. Not so here. If you’re in the Ogden area, a visit is worth the time. You’ll be well rewarded.
Super-close shot today on the cone flower. Notice the hair on the compound eye – a hair between each lens. Also, looks like this one had been into the Rose of Sharon before hitting the cone flower. Those larger, white chunks of pollen on her back came from that flower (or maybe a wine cup??) .
This one is just pretty. Lots of detail, too. You can see her chewed-up wings, her neck, tongue, back of the head behind her eye, and her claws/toes.
The cone flower is kind of neat because its pollen becomes ready in concentric circles or rings. If you look down from above, you can see the pollen ring. The bees always follow the ring around and often present a good profile shot. And sometimes there’s good focus.
The flower is aging a little…but there’s still pollen (and harvesting) a good while after the petals fade and curl and fall.
This little one was so excited – moved so quickly. Very pleased that I got a shot of her face with pollen all over. The cone flowers are so attractive to the pollinators. Neat mid-summer to fall bloom.
