Finally got a shot on the orange rock rose. Super filthy little sweat bee this time. Light is awful, but the shadow is fun. This particular sweat bee has hair all over her abdomen, too, and she’s just laden. Kind of cannot tell where the flower ends and the bee begins.
Tag: rock rose
First of the Year on the Rock Rose
Apologies for posting late. But here’s a great shot of a little one on the rock rose. These are such silly flowers to shoot bees on. The blossoms are, in a word, flappy – so windy days are out. Then, keeping with the flappy theme, when a bee lands on one, she pulls it down – often obscuring herself from the camera. And if flappy weren’t enough, they open late in the morning and close down pretty early in the afternoon. So there’s a pretty short window (in hours) when they’re open. (Contrast with the catmint that on warm days has bees before the sun comes up over the mountain…and after it sets over the mountains in the west.) Oh, and one more bit of carping about the rock roses: even when they’re open and not flapping, they may not be throwing pollen (so no bees).
All that whined about, I sure love getting bee shots on them. And I do like the flower. This one is a good one.
Heavy Laden in the Rock Rose
Getting ready to drive to the Smash in the Square 2021 Spring Festival at The Village at Castle Pines, Colorado. So I’m posting the next few in advance.
Got a few neat shots this week on the rock roses. This one happens to be a pink one. But there are red, magenta, yellow, orange, etc., too. Some days they’ll open right up. Others…they remain closed. And they’re so flappy in the wind. It’s always a thrill to get a good shot on any one of these. And look at her pollen basket!
Sweat Bee in the Rock Rose
I think this pic is a little too “warm”. Tough. This is such an interesting flower. Have some pink ones, too. Only open for part of the day. Seems random to me (but I know it isn’t). Think opening has as much to do with sunlight (vs. clouds) as it does time of the day. Bees love it, but they’re heavy enough to move the blossoms when they latch on. Really a neat flower. One I haven’t quite figured out yet.
Helianthemum Overdose
Need to get some on the pink, darker red, and orange ones… Stole a few moments to shoot yesterday and came up with a few good ones. I like this one a lot. Printed it again this morning…looks really good on paper.
(Mini Digression next.) Went to the city offices yesterday to see about having a mini, spontaneous art fair on our lawn. Seems like the default answer in those offices is “NO”!! Overheard a number of conversations between residents and “officials”, and that’s always the first play. Seems like, if they truly work for us, they’d be figuring out how to say “yes”…helping those for whom they ostensibly work. Not so. So…apparently I cannot use our lawn for a one-off art sale. I’m looking in to different venues, but…
Enjoy the bee. Beauty and calm and joy in that shot.
Pollen Buckets on Helianthemum
Helianthemum – also known as rock rose, sunrose, rushrose, and frostweed. As I mentioned before, fantastic for pollinators.
A bit windy yesterday and this isn’t a particularly good shot of the flower – but look at those pollen buckets on her. Wondering how full is too full. And of course her filthy face. Another thing to notice is her underside. Such a neat pattern there. Very cool little bee today.
Bonus – In Flight – through the Helianthemum
Helianthemum – also known as rock rose, sunrose, rushrose, and frostweed. Pretty neat stuff…my only complaint is that it closes up early in the evening.
This particular bee wasn’t very interested in the pollen – I don’t think it was ready yet, yesterday – but she hovered around long enough for me to get almost good focus on a number of shots. And look at that huge pollen bucket (and beetongue!). Here’s one of them:
