Crocuses from March 11th

Click on any image in the mosaic to view the gallery.

 

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More bombus

Or would that be bombii?

(Click images for gallery.)

From the world pool: March 24th, 2018

The biggest thing this week that I saw was the Cambridge Analytica/Facebook scandal. Lots of links for that, and lots else as well.

An amazing story

Yeah, it’s out of focus. I like it anyway, and it somehow seems to fit the story I just found. Here’s a direct link to the PDF of the article “A bee as pet – a bee psychologist’s perspective.” It includes a letter from a woman who had an extraordinary relationship with a wingless bumble bee queen, and the commentary of Lars Chittka of the Bee Sensory and Behavioural Ecology Lab at Queen Mary University of London.

Oh, and there’s more pictures with this article.

A Discovery

Today I was doing some yard work, and as often happens I make plans to do A, B, and C, and then get distracted and do X or Y instead of B and C. I’ve been trying to eradicate the periwinkle, so I hauled what I’d pulled up over to a spot where it can sit on stone and slowly die. (At least I hope it dies, with things that are invasive you never know. I’ve still got an eye on a black bag of yellow flag iris corms that continue to sprout every year after being out of the pond for three years.)

Bombus melanopygus

 

Hello!

Meet the black-tailed/orange-rumped bumble bee. She was very slow and methodical in harvesting a particular patch of crocuses, and let me take a lot of pictures. Here’s the first batch of them. Click individual images to see the gallery.

March 10th crocuses

And more crocuses. These were photographed on March 10th.

From the world pool: March 17, 2018

I left out US politics this week, just because.

Bombus vosnesenskii

I had an encounter with some little friends the other day while photographing the crocuses. This one is a yellow-faced bumble bee, and was busy, busy, busy. She was mostly moving too fast for my macro, which has a very short depth of field. But I got a couple of decent pictures.

Doesn’t she look pettable?

And here’s a hint of what’s to come when I finish getting the photos together: Bombus melanopygus was a lot slower, and I took a LOT of pictures of her.

Hello, little friend

First bumblebee I’ve spotted this season.

The crocus spring

I started taking pictures of crocuses a few days ago, but haven’t posted any yet, because I’ve been pretty sluggish due to a bad cold/flu. But I’ve decided that I have more energy now, and also that I’m going to post them in sequential groupings until I get caught up to “real time,” so their development is clear. These are the first photos I took, on March 1st. It was a dark and rainy day, so I didn’t get a lot where my hand was steady enough with the macro lens at the necessary shutter speed for my satisfaction. But I kind of like these.

 

From the world pool: March 9, 2018

Garden ornament

Not so much this time, since I didn’t wait a month or two to post.

Spring heather

Photos of crocuses will follow when I have more energy and less of a cold…

From the world pool: March 4, 2018

Lots and lots of links…

Dew

From the world pool: February 6, 2018

I have such a backlog. Well, by the time I get to it half of it will be out of date. That’s a comfort!