Leaf Cutter Bee in Cosmos

Snagged a few minutes this week for photography, at last. It must have been my week for insects as I bagged a few goodies, the first of which to share is this Leaf Cutter Bee. Ive seen their handiwork about the garden, and Ive seen them muscle bits of leaf into cracks in the brickwork of my house. Too bad they are too busy to wait till Ive got the macro lens on.

How tiny are they?

Compared to a regular sized honey bee, pretty darn tiny! This fellow was collecting pollen, whilst his Mates were drinking nectar. He let me get very, very close, but I needed to get a little closer for better clarity.

However, each time I advanced he flew off the the next flower. Oh well, try again another time, eh?

Macro lens experiment, December 30th.

Another hidden world under our noses

If you saw yesterdays picture, you see how these little wonders get missed. Each individual flower is tiny. Yet, stick a macro lens up to them and - Whoa! Did you ever imagine such a far out and freaky flower?

But Wait, Theres More ~
Welcome our new Alien Overlord!


Check it out! Bees love this plant, but me personally, I dont think Id stick my head in there and let it tickle my belly...it just seems - dangerous to me.

I think these were the first things I shot with the macro. It is not a top of the line lens, (Optex OVL311 Wide angle/Macro Video Lens, with the wide angle segment removed). In addition, it was meant for use on a (video) film camera, not my digital (still) Canon. But it simply screws onto the front of my Canon EF 50mm F1.8 II lens, so how could I resist having a go?

All things considered, the shots are great. But since Im the one that took them, I mostly see where they could be better. Then again, these flowers arent flat. So with this lens, getting every element in focus is, well, probably never going to happen.

Hey, I still get to have alot of fun trying while I save up the big bucks that more suitable equipment will require. And no, if the government gives me any 'economic stimulus money' I wont be using it for photo gear - it wouldnt be enough anyway!

So, anyway. About Bees...

Before I found myself in Bitter-rant Land yesterday, I was considering with some esteem, our friends, The Bees.

I also expressed a sincere longing for a deeper understanding of them, their families, their classifications, their plant and social preferences etc etc, just before plunging into a desultory despair of disquietude re: my lacking omnipotency.


Anyhow, here is what I know:
The rose's leaves have been carved by a Leaf Cutter Bee. This bee could be considered either a vandal, or an artist. The leaf discs will be used in her brooding nest. The Leaf Cutter Bee belongs to the genus Megachile.


Here is what I do not know:
Is she solitary? What does she look like? Does only the female cut the leaves? What would her brood nest look like? Where is it likely to be? Do they have a sting? Why can I never catch them in action carving up the leaves? Would I mistake her for one of the super fast Blue Banded Bees, who often escape the camera's gaze?

One day when my molecules have rejoined the cosmos, perhaps then I will know it all.

So many bees...

...so little time. I see so many different types of bee in my gardens, and Id love to know who they are. Dang, I was just at the library today! Ah well, even if they have something, it wont be on the shelf where it is supposed to be.

I used to get very worked up looking for books that the computer says are there on the shelf, but arent. Now, I just reserve them online, and let the "librarians" spend all day looking for them.

That must be why they have to have a "certificate*" in "library science" before they can be hired. Is it thier credentials that help them to find books?! Even if they didnt know where to shelve them in the first place?

I have also given up correctly shelving books that I find out of order while looking for ones I am after. It seems to me that if I use my Powers for good, I get no work of my own done.

I did not mean this to turn into a library rant, but, how cathartic.

__________
* "certificate" in Australia = "diploma" elsewhere.
And yes, you must have one in order to be even a lowly Library Assistant. What a crock!

Last one, for 2008 anyway!

How could I resist? Ok, thats the last one of these....for this year anyway!

Have a safe and happy New Year everyone.

Wishing you all the best of everything in 2009!

Wing-ed Wonder

How close can I get?!
Can you take any more bees, or should I switch off a bit?

Macro practice, pas de deux

...and at least one more tommorrow while I continue attempts to pull together some sort of schedule for life, including blogging, with The Most DH home on holidays. Dont get me wrong, Im not complaining, I love having him home. Its just too easy to go do things with him instead of sit here trying to coax that FECKING GOOGLE READER into letting me do my thang...its being bloody awful!

Anyhow, moving bee (busy), moving tree (breeze), shallow depth of field on the Macro...well, one of these days we will peg the shot. Ive said it before and so shall say it again: Im nothing if not determined!

Who else gives you a Bee's backside?

I chased this busy bee all over the gum flowers that day with the macro, and loved every minute of it. Well, I say every minute, when I got doused with sticky nectar there was a couple panicky minutes trying to not let it get onto the camera. But otherwise, it was a great morning.

The Loirkeets had as usual scolded me soundly and flown off, which although dissappointing, did allow me and the bugs some quality time. There is another bee shot tommorrow for all you bee fans out there.

We are home! I will be telling you all about it as soon as I can organize myself and some photos. I took 800 photos, some of them while we were gravity's plaything, so they wont be clear enough to share....ah, good times!

Most are pretty medicore as far as a brief once over appears. The longer I use the 'long nose' lens (Canon Zoom EF 75-300mm 1:4-5.6 III) the more ambivalent I am about it. One day I use it and get fab clear shots and the next day Im back on "Amateur Hour Presents: The Amazing Blurred Photos of Lavender".

There is no hand holding this lens, it has got to be on a tri-pod or similar if you are zooming all the way out to 300 on it. WAH! Birds, animals and strangers in car parks dont like to wait around for you to set up gizmos - heck - they fly off, run away or start swinging things as soon as they see a camera. But again, I digress...

Still having MAJOR PROBLEMS WITH GOOGLE READER, so if I havent been round yet, I will be as soon as I can. The dang thing just freezes up IE7+ and the only thing I can do is shut off the power and boot up again from scratch. Its terminally annoying and I may have to move to another reader if it doesnt clear up - lifes too short to sit around re-booting. This is the problem with groovy gadgets, you get used to them and then they take you round the back and work you over....end grumble for today?

Brief, rambling, fuzzy post

A bee takes a moment to de-pollen before calling it a day and returning to his hive. I wonder if they are wild bees, or if there is a keeper somewhere, who might wonder what that flavour is in his honey this year. Bet they'd never guess Hollyhocks.

If this post goes live as planned, you will be reading it on Dec 26th, and I will be somewhere between the Dog on the Tuckerbox and home. As I write this Im not sure if time will allow me to schedule a post for the 27th - so if theres nothing tommorrow - you can assume we are sleeping off the long drive. If it goes longer than that without word, you can assume I finally found my dream cave, and am not coming back to civilisation, ever!

In which case: Be good to yourselves, Ciao!

The Fantastic Tree WITH Native Bees!

What tree is this? I dont know! But these clusters of flowers were about three times bigger than my head! It stands on the fence line of someones property at the side of a narrow road with nowhere to pull over.

So I shot from the car expecting to be given the 'bums rush' any moment. They arent too bad considering I could take no extra care with my composition without tresspassing. A lonely dog looked longingly at me from the other side of the fence, hopeful.

But I was doubly rewarded when I spied some of our tiny stingless native bees working the enormous blossoms! Im no native bee expert, so Ive got no clue which Australian Native Bee they are - but Iam now thier biggest fan. Arent they darling?

Adding to wish list: Macro lens, and personal hovercraft.

David Austin Rose - Gertrude Jekyll

One of my top three rose choices, Gertrude Jekyll from David Austin. If you take that link out to his site, you can browse his other selections, which are all fabulous in every way. Dont despair that the site is the UK, you can buy David Austin roses in retail shops around the world. Ask you local garden center to get your selections in for you. USA readers, it is never too early to start planning your spring planting!

Other than the above, I am completely uninspired verbally this morning, so off I go.

Last Call of Happy Hour

After visiting several flowers, our man on the job was fluffy with pollen. When he finally stumbled out of the last flower, he flew listing to one side.

Now probably it was all that pollen stuck to him that set him off balance. Or maybe he was just so full of nectar that the weight of it made it hard to maintain altitude. Id have to be a bee to be sure. But I find it more amusing to think that he was just tipsy with all that sweet nectar.

And he certinally flew like a drunk. Suddenly changing course, shambling forward in a sort of sideways fashion and then - he bumped into this bud stalk! Instantly, but not gracefully, he grasped a bud with two legs and hauled his body in to sit on the edge of this leaf!

Then he set about furiously running his legs over himself. Everywhere he could reach he tried to clear himself of pollen. Pollen is obviously sticky stuff.

Suddenly deciding he was 'clear for take off', he let go of the bud and plunged several inches downward untill he got his wings going fast enough for flight. And with pollen grains still visible on his head, our bee friend flew off toward home. Flew...well, okay. Not so much 'flew' as lurched.

Bon voyage, Bee!

No such thing as a 'free lunch'

Here we have a bee burrowing right in to drink nectar from nectaries at the very base of the flower. For the bee, its the equivalent of stopping off at the pub on the way home from work.

You may have noticed that hollyhocks make masses of pollen. As the bee burrows in, he cant help but get covered in it! After he leaves this flower, he will order another pint at the next flower - thus bringing pollen from one flower to the next.

So the bee thinks he is getting a free lunch, and the hollyhock gets what it needs to set a big crop of seeds.

Bee Sieged, part 2

We expected that the next morning there would be stragglers about, (looking for thier now absent Queen), and assumed that they would disperse during the day. Seemed a reasonable assumption anyway.

Long story short: more bees came. And they werent happy. They actually followed me around the garden untill I decided that I could skip garden chores for one day. Getting in and out of the house (without letting in lots of bees) became very tricky. We hoped that the bee keeper who owned the sunglasses (left behind yesterday) would return.



Thankfully he did! We gave him his glasses and pointed out the new swarm. He was perplexed, said this was not normal and asked if we had a box. As he was on his own today, I assisted him by holding the box under the swarm while he shook these bees off the branch and into it.

Neither of us was wearing protective gear, and having seen him stung a number of times yesterday, I was nervous - but I did not get stung. (Considering that they threatened me all day, I thought that was amazing.) It took awhile to get all the bees out of my hair, which was a little wierd.

The box of bees felt incredible! It vibrated softly and made an intense humming sound. After some time, the box was taped shut, placed in the keepers car, and off they went into the sunset.

The siege had ended, Huzzah!

Bee Sieged!

Now, dont get me wrong, I love bees. And, Im flattered that they think my gardens looked like a great spot to set up shop, but...

They formed this (12x8 inch/30x20cm) ball o' bees in a half an hour. Only 10 feet (3 metres) from the front door, and 6 feet (1.8 metres) off the ground, and The Most DH is deathly allergic. If they hadnt chosen this particular spot, we might have just left them to thier work. But here it was just too risky to leave them bee (pun intended).

We made a minimum of 20 phone calls to local bee keepers, bee keepers associations, bee fanciers, local council - the lot. Everyone we talked to said they didnt want them, didnt need them, couldnt be bothered, just get a nest killer spray, etc. We did find one man who would come in three days and required $100.00 plus tax to do the job. (ACK!)

We then re-called everyone who hadnt answered the first time, or that we'd left messages for earlier in the day. The last number to try got an answer! This gentleman also could not come to claim the bees, but took our details and promised to ring round a few of his friends and see if he could round someone up. I admitt I didnt believe he would bother.

But then at dusk, two strange men appeared on our front lawn. Basically what they did was shake the bees off the branch and into a box! It was over so quick I didnt get much by way of pictures of it. The men did get stung quite a bit, but I got stung only once while watching. (It wasnt anywhere near as bad as Ive been lead to believe, Ive had worse stings from wasps).

When they left we discovered one gent's sunglasses had been accidentally left behind, which turned out to be very lucky for us. Find out why when the story of our Bee Siege continues tommorrow!


NSW Dept of Primary Industries Fact sheet on Bee Swarms, Why & What to do

Wordless - Bee in my Buxus

Nobody grows Buxus for its flowers, but that doesnt deter the bees from gathering the pollen. Spring has arrived in Australia at last.

Happy WW, did you play?

Blogs, Beads & Tunes

Its autumn here in Oz, and the roses are making thier last show for the season. The bees are still hard at it too.

Ive had two good sessions making beads! I felt 'The Love' returning, and I didnt want to turn off the torch - good stuff!

Maybe nothing to call the Guggenheim over, but some simple, lovely beads. The break seems to have done me good. I should have something to show you in a day or two.

If I ever get to build my dream studio - a big honkin' disc changer is on the top of my list. I like music while Im torching and during my last session, it occured to me again how ecclectic my taste in music is, take yesterdays 'set':

Dr Didg - Serontonality
Ocean Colour Scene - Moseley Shoals
Santana - greatest hits
Cake - Fashion Nugget
Cream - Strange Brew, the very best of
Squirrel Nut Zippers - Hot


Are you a blogger? Would you be interested in periodic tips by others who blog? Got something you'd like to discuss with other bloggers? Lori Greenberg runs a group on Yahoo, Art Blog Co-op. Maybe youd like to join? You wont be inundated with emails from this group, but the ones you get will always have a useful nugget of info for you. Lori Greenberg's Blog is always a good read too - check her out!