A new bee…every day
Rough past couple of days at the Ogden Arts Festival. The heat was…crippling. Think it crested 100 degrees yesterday and west-facing, on asphalt – sapping. I think it’s going to be a little cooler this weekend in Logan. Hoping, anyway.
Here’s a great shot from last week of a leafcutter on a four nerve daisy. Still love that name. So many possiblities going down that path. The leafcutters are always in motion. But this one set up, facing me, for a few seconds as she groomed herself. Great shape.
So far behind this morning. That Ogden festival today (hope to see you there!). So…quick hit from yesterday on the foxtail lily again (doesn’t last long – love to shoot at it while it’s around). One honeybee and another carpenter bee. Good captures. Enjoy!
Pretty sure that this is a sweat bee, but I’m not 100pct on that. I’m entirely sure that it’s a neat shot, though. Look at that pollen all over her.
Hail the day before yesterday – right on schedule after the taller irises opened. Every year. And looks like the hail tore up the petal a little on the right side of this one. Every year.
Low forties overnight here. Very cold all day no bees out in the rain today. May showers bring??? Stream of consciousness yammering, apparently.
This is a full-frame shot…meaning that I did not crop it at all. I generally crop the picture some for the sake of getting closer – or the sake of composition. But I liked the way the whole thing looked on this one. Was down on my belly in the grass right on top of the thing. I know that dandelions in lawns get a bad rap, but the bees sure love them. And there’s something to be said for that.
Love the eye on this one. And you get a good look at two of the three eyes along the top of her head, too.
This one is my new favorite. It’s a tiny, tiny, tiny metallic-looking sweat bee on an iris petal (called a fall – those are the ones which, not surprisingly, hang down. The upright ones are called standards.). But here’s the thing – if you look in the lower right part of the photograph, you can actually see the thickness of the iris’ fall. That’s not something I’d considered before. And it gives some scale to the bee – which (by my guess) was about a quarter of the size of a grain of rice. So tiny…yet so neat.
Yesterday was silly frustrating for shooting. Fairly warm (mid sixties), not all that much wind (maybe ten mph from the south – not the brutal north we’ve been having lately). And prettymuch no bees. Anywhere. Three hives in the back yard pretty inactive during the day. Nothing on the fruit trees. A couple on the flowering ornamental cherry.
But… Got a great shot of a native sweat bee on a daffodil. Some flowers I just seldom get bees on – and the daffodils fall into that category. This is almost a full frame shot (maybe ten percent crop) so the detail of the bee isn’t all that apparent at the resolution that you see. But I’m thrilled with it.
Here’s a little native sweat bee on a dandelion. I know they’re the bane of many – especially in the lawn. But…the bees sure love them. I kinda like them, too. And I’m so lousy about putting down the weed’n’feed. Maybe feeding the bees is a good excuse. And, really, lawn crocuses and lawn tulips and lawn donkeys are pretty neat, too. What’s a lawn donkey, you ask? I’m not sure. Some flower that grows in this particular lawn…kinda has the shape of a donkey’s head. Will look for one with a bee later on in the year. Provided I procrastinate on the fertilizing/weed control. Again.
Followed this one from flower to flower. Really good look at this one today. So pretty.
I think this one is a different sub-species from the one I posted yesterday. Lots less golden. I’ve been finding black ones that seem pretty common this time of year, but I’ve not gotten a shot that I like. It’s really tough to shoot black things (dogs, cats, etc.) on lighter backgrounds because of how light works with the camera. Simply put, if the dark thing is lit right, the background is washed out and bright to distraction. If the background is lit right, the dark thing looks (effectively) like a sihlouette. There are ways to compensate, but nothing particularly solid. Just lots more difficult to hit right. I’ll catch one (using my top technique – luck) one of these days. Btw, shot this one a few minutes ago.
Running late with my day. Again. Just shot this little sweat bee in the crocuses. Seems the honeybees had all packed it in by 3:45 p.m. Lots of natives about, but this is the first one I saw that I liked. Can’t wait to see the whole session. Pretty little thing for sure.
