A new bee…every day
Posting a few days in advance. Heading out to Fountain Hills, AZ for the art festival there.
Great pollen on a September sunflower. Color of the yellow seems a little wonky to me, but I’m admittedly a little colorblind. The sunflowers are volunteering all over the place. Some getting culled, some getting left. They tend to wander well. And they self-hybridize, too. So it’s interesting to see the new blossoms. Especially when they keep some of that recessive red.
Sunflower throwing pollen again. And it got all over this longhorn. Of course those are not horns, but antennae. But the name is apt, nonetheless. They really seem to like the sunflowers. And to sleep in the sunflowers, too. And they’re a pretty calm bee and don’t mind sharing. I’ve seen as many as six all tucked in together in a sunflower. Thought it looked like kids in a hostel. Just tired. Tomorrow is another big day.
This is the whole shot – no crop. Good detail on the bee’s face, including some pollen grains on the eye. You can also see how and where the sunflower is throwing its pollen. Still cold out, but the river of crocuses is starting to appear.
Selecting a pic for the day in the winter is kind of a crapshoot. In the summer, I try to shoot every day…and I generally have several hundred that might be interesting or worth posting. Hate to admit it, but there are still thousands I have not seen. So…to select, I go to a random folder and click through…looking for one that speaks to me. This one was the first one I clicked on. And I like it lots. Tons of color for a snowy day.
It really is almost spring. 😉
Usually I’ll crop a little closer. But the whole effect is really good today. Been spending lots of time preparing for Feb. 1. Big day on this site!
This one is from August, 2018. Going through folders I’ve not seen entirely yet – preparing for some fun for the first anniversary of the site…which is just a couple of weeks away. Good fun that day, I’m planning… Also, Yoda I sound like.
Late post today. And silly narrative. At least the bee is cute!
Had some fun shooting birds yesterday, but I sure miss my bees!
The blue is a Subaru, I think. But I liked it well enough to keep it in the pic. Not crop it out. The left wing on this one is neat today – as are the slight wing shadows on the sunflower petals. Waiting for summer…
Looks like they’re both brown-belted bumbles. That doesn’t always happen. The same species, I mean, sharing a blossom. The other thing that rarely happens is having two bees in (near) focus at the same time. But here’s a nice, pollen-covered pair. Couple more months until the crocuses? We’ve had some in January, so here’s hoping. They’re nestled under the snow for now.
Found this one yesterday while looking at some shots from August 2019. It’s always fun to get one in flight. And the ones with laden baskets are always pretty. Her purpose.
But the fun came with a monstrous brown-belted bumble coming in onto the same flower. That shadow…almost there! In looking at further pics (none of which had both bees in focus at the same time, sadly) they shared that sunflower for a while, both doing their thing. Great shadow on a great backdrop.
This is the whole shot. No cropping. Like the focus on the eye and face. The foreground and background out of focus can be a little tough on some of my shots. There’s a “rule” in photography that the foreground out of focus distracts. Maybe it does. But with bees, and so much of life, keeping the focus in the right spot seems key. Irrespective of whatever else is going on around – both fore and back. And the sunflower doesn’t seem to mind.
