A new bee…every day
Yesterday was a good bee day. Some of those strange little geraniums started to open – and those the bees love. First warmer day in a long, long time (two inches of rain in the last couple of weeks??) and they were out in force.
Here’s a simple shot of one just leaving a salvia. Wings blurred beyond seeing, but a great tongue and a pollen basket just starting to fill. Seems archetypal for this site. Love it.
Too cold today for the bees. Odd April. And could use some more precip, of course. Here’s one from the 3rd…heading toward the hyacinths. Adding a second at 100pct again. Just for fun. Again, that huge pollen basket. Something so satisfying about seeing them laden. Guess maybe because they’ve done work. But also, it’s such a funny clump of stuff. Sticky for sure. Just a glob on the leg. Plus there’s something interesting about flying around with it. They’re not the most aerodynamic lookin’ critters anyway, but with those bulging saddle bags…
Very cool and windy and cloudy the last couple of days. So no bee shooting. This one is from a couple of days ago. And a common lament illustrated:
I resize these pictures to 1000 pixels wide (for lots of reasons, one of which is that they load faster on a phone). But when I do so (and when you look at them on your phone), you really don’t see what I see looking at a much, much higher resolution on a bigger monitor. So you don’t ever get to see what I get to see (unless you buy a large print, I guess).
So, as a counter to that today, you get two pics. The first that I’d post normally. Then a really zoomed-in version of same just showing the bee. As I see it. Enjoy. And thanks for indulging me. Oh, and look at the size of that pollen basket!!
And it’s a great look at a bee in flight approaching. And as light as the pollen looks in the picture, it’s a very dirty gold as you can see. The background is pretty interesting, too. That depth of focus again.
Some of the tulips were really throwing pollen today. Only had about ten minutes to shoot…but got some fun stuff. Only looked at a few so far, but this one grabbed me. And bee shadows just tickle me. Fun shot!
Cloudy, cold, and a little rainy today. But not really much and/or enough. We’re so dry dry dry around here. Worrisome. Interesting thought, though: not even close to “outside normal range”. That’s one of our (collective human) flat spots when we see the world. While we’re around longer than mayflies, we’re not around nearly as long as, say, rocks. So when one of us says, “this is the driest summer I can remember”, mother nature just laughs. That said, “normal range” is a pretty important concept when it comes to discernment.
Here are a couple of neat bees. Poor bulbs seem to be suffering from lack of “spring showers” already.
Exceeded my word quota yesterday…so this one, shot today, can speak for itself…
I’ll often get multiple bees in a shot. And sometimes even with both in focus. But it’s really rare to get two in flight and in focus. So this is a pretty neat one. Dumb luck, of course, but I’m pleased with it. Something wrong with the crop, but I can’t figure it out. The bees are great, though! Shot yesterday. Cloudy and rainy today so likely no shooting today. Need the precip, though, for sure.
Crocuses are still rioting. Kind of warm today. Almost mid-fifties or so. So I got a bunch of neat shots on them (maybe a bonus coming up…). Saw some of these Siberian Squills the other day (they’ve not been cancelled yet, have they???…ugh.) but no bees on them yet. Until today. One in flight. And one really saddlebaggey. Love those pollen baskets. And the blue pollen just delights me.
They were out today. The light was all over the place and it was only in the mid-40s, but… Not only were the crocuses going wild, but the tiny daffodils were starting as were the Siberian squills. And some kind of small iris – the really short ones. About four inches tall. Maybe Siberian, too? I’ve forgotten. I especially like the rock in this one. It is a “rock garden”, after all.
