Digger Bee on a Black-eyed Susan

This is an odd flower. Seems to attract one variety of wasp predominantly. But now and then there’s a digger bee on it (which actually looks remarkably like the wasp in question). Look at the hairy front leg. That’s quite a contrast to the pollen sacs that you see on the rear leg of many other bees. Her wing looks a little chewed up, too. Great shape she makes on the flower. And there’s a little bit of shadow…and that always tickles me.

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Digger Bee on the Salvia

Much of the salvia has gone the way of others that throw seeds everywhere. That is to say, on to the lawn to be mulched when mowed. That actually is working out pretty well. Strange shortcut.

But…only a few salvias around anymore. Great colors in this one. Something really nice about the magenta and green. Maybe a little dark.

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Really Great Digger Bee on a Salvia

I had fun with this one yesterday late in the day. It clearly wasn’t…but it appeared to be posing for me. Was always showing its side…stayed on flower stalks near to me and in pretty good light (instead of the shadows)…even seemed to look at me from time to time. Maybe vamping a little. Tickled me, whateverthecase. Here’s one of the fun shots. Such super resolution on the eye…and two of the three eyes (occeli) on the top of her head. I’m going to print this one out for the print binds. Very neat bee!

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Special One: Digger Bee

Here’s one I have not shot before – or cannot remember having shot before. This one is a bouncy bee – so at first I thought it was one of those hairy flies that mimic. Digger bees are hard to shoot because they fly really erratically and seldom stay in one place for very long – and they seem to be rare around here. I think this one is a female because they’re supposed to be hairier. And I can’t imagine a bee hairier than this one. Check out the hair on the ends of her middle leg. Really great bee!

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