Pollinator photos --- Add yours, name and describe them. Let's make it a catalogue

I don't know if this is a moth or a butterfly. It operates in full sunlight. It never buries it's hesd in flowes as bees do. It seems to be constantly on the lookout for predators. Hey, there is now a second page. Pages seem to be much longer when they are photo rich. I wonder if they are measured by word count, number of posts or by some other measure

More moths and the day's most colourful critter. It is either a bee, fly or wasp. All close ups came out fuzzy.

The order of all photos has been reversed. This means that in many cases, the comentary meant for one picture is in the opposite order from the photo. I always post mine three at a time and they are usually in chronilogical order. The threads on wildlife and building in particular are affected. With thing I've built, I have always shown things in start to finish steps.

BUMBLE BEE BONANZA Last week I worked near an ocean side park that was host to thousands of bumble bees. The more fuzzy variety with the yellow ring on the abdomen is often seen deep inside trumpet shaped flowers. The more common ones with a yellow tip on the abdomen seem to keep an eye on their surroundings more. They have long tounges and often lap like a dog as the one in the second photo is doing.

This flower is perfectly designed to be polinated by these bees. They land on the horn and hold on with their legs as they work the bloom above.

Notice that their feet have hooks like an ice climbing axe. The last one has the saddle bags stuffed full. Notice the tounge.

Sometimes they don't land at all but hover like a humming bird. The first one is coming in for a landing while the second one is hovering. Leg position changes just before they land.

The more fuzzy variety is a perfect pollen collector. The type in the last photo are much more common. They seem more concerned about their appearance and regularly groom.

The next few shots display the foot hooks. These bees can walk upside down with ease.

The last photo shows the horns that are grasped by the legs.

The tounge often comes out before landing.

Different flowers require different tactics. These flowers have nowhere to hold on. The hooked feet help with acrobatics. A male hummingbird has laid claim to this flower and he often drives intruders off. Humming birds will kill bees, so this one is taking a risk.

The humming birds show little interest in the flowers that are adapted to accommodate the bumble bees. Each to his own - or prepare for battle !

A different location now. This spider is so small that my camera wants to focus on larger things.

DRUNKEN BEES ? These bumble bees seem to be intoxicated. At first I thought they were victims of spiders but as evening approached more of them landed. They were working a large patch of lavender but most chose to land on oregano and on other flattish perches. Even those who were still flying seemed sluggish and a few gave up on flying altogether as they walked and climbed from flower to flower. This is the first time I've witnessed this. The same thing happened three evenings in a row.

Temperatures were high so the sluggishness isn't related to that. I was able to handle some of theese bees. They wiggled but were unable to flee.

These first two are still working but moving so slowly that I could have easily captured them. The last one is down for the night.

This dragon fly is nearing the end of its life. I found it on a lily pad with the abdomen and one wing in the water. I assume that it laid eggs there.

A short time ago it was the most fearsome creature around this little pond. The spines on the legs are like daggers to small prey.

Although still alive, it could barely manage a wiggle when I picked it up. A month ago I couldn't even capture it with my camera.

I think this out of focus shell was left behind by the next generation of dragon fly.

The lily pads are covered in little larva. This wasp is feeding. It can hardly be called hunting with this slow moving prey.

We had a colourful sunset. Everything, including this wasp was bathed in crimson light. My pale skin appeared to have a nice tan.

This bumblebee is grooming. Their short thick bodies are quite flexible. Pollen gets everywhere when you're covered in fuzz. They seem particularly concerned if it builds up on the face or eyes. Notice the build up of pollen on the forelimb. The built in comb was just dragged over the head.

Both legs and antennae are employed in grooming. Leaves with a rough surface are used as brushes. They slide against the grain on leaves to get at areas that are difficult to reach with their legs. I wonder if predators ambush grooming bees. I have reached out and touched a few that were so engrossed in the activity that they failed to flee. A hungry bird or spider would strike much faster than I did.

I was messing with the camera when the wasp caught a meal. The best action shot so far ruined by overexposure. A few days later I got it just right.

My sister is holding a dragon fly that is near the end.

These fussy bees are more elusive than the more common bumbles. The little fly is doing something with the front legs.

This bee is carrying a heavy load. I think it has the largest pollen sacks of any I've seen. The black wasp blends in well with the black eyed susan.

In the course of demolishing a house, I have rendered at least 500 wasps homeless. I stripped the roof off with the asphault shingles attached to the boards and there were about 75 nests attached. They were all engaged in laying eggs and no amount of noise or vibration would drive them off. Even after nests were on the ground or in the truck the wasps continued to remain with the house as they migrated to untouched areas. This was done during warm weather but I did not recieve one sting although I was often engulfed in a cloud of wasps. They must be a stingless variety. I'm sure it's too late in the year for them to relocate even if they wanted to.

The photos were taken in the golden light 45 minutes before sunset. I sure hope Karma isn't real

Dale, do you have pictures of the plant with the purple stalk of pea-like flowers?

pic 127 is the file name i think

Devon Olsen wrote:Dale, do you have pictures of the plant with the purple stalk of pea-like flowers?

pic 127 is the file name i think

I'll be working near that park next week and will take a photo that represents the whole plant. It's been a while, so seed pods may have developed. I think the one you mean is the one with a horn that bumblebees hold with their legs. Stay tuned.

yeah pics 127, 190 and 192, osme others as well

i ask because i think it may be the same as some sort of plant i have out back, it has those purple stalks with pea like things developing afterwards, though much smaller "peas" than what one would normally see, also saw some near a mountain lake yesterday evening, a LOT more stalks per plant and fuzzier pods, just trying to figure out what it is exactly so i can find out if its possibly a wild edible

Don't know what our little helpers are, but I love to photograph them~



tried to catch this one flying and he wouldn't let me

ive had bees all over my sunflowers last month or so, interesting to watch them do their work:)

Devon Olsen wrote:ive had bees all over my sunflowers last month or so, interesting to watch them do their work:)

Us too, we made an observation that as first year growers we are more fascinated by watching bugs than any movie or tv show we had ever been addicted to. We have accidentally spent half the day standing out there just watching the bugs and going oooooooh aaaaaaaaaah! Last week I was sitting here at the computer and glanced out the window in time to catch 2 spiders hanging from a tree fighting, I should have videotaped them but I was too busy being awestruck by their mad skills.

thats pretty cool man, i do that occassionally to, watching ants do their thing on the sunflower leaves with the aphid farming they do, sat there for 3hrs and almost took a cat nap (when they're planted on a hugelkultur they make a nice shady place to nap:))

darn bugs are pretty interesting if you pay attention lol

These are great photos! Can you tell us a little bit about your camera & lense(s)?

Here are some bee photos I took a while back. They were moving incredibly fast so most are a little blurry. I had to set the camera to "Sport" mode to allow it to change focus fast.























I actually had a bumble bee nest in my yard:





Here you can see one of the bees flying in toward the nest, at the far right edge of the photo:


In the center of the photo, in flight:


Crawling through the sticks & branches:


They were actually nesting inside the remains of a half-buried car that is in my backyard (yes there is a story behind that). Last winter I started digging out the car and I meant to figure out a suitable replacement home for the bees but I never did quite figure one out. Although I have several brush piles around my yard so they may have moved to one of those. If anyone here is smart about bumble bee housing, please speak up.

Devon Olsen wrote:yeah pics 127, 190 and 192, osme others as well

i ask because i think it may be the same as some sort of plant i have out back, it has those purple stalks with pea like things developing afterwards, though much smaller "peas" than what one would normally see, also saw some near a mountain lake yesterday evening, a LOT more stalks per plant and fuzzier pods, just trying to figure out what it is exactly so i can find out if its possibly a wild edible

Here is the plant. As expected, the seed pods are well on their way.

These are the last of the wasps from the attic of the demolition house. This scrap of wood is in the berry bushes where the house was. They huddle like this just as they did on the nests.

Notice the eye colour change. They can barely fly now. Those that fall to the ground do not return.

The plant you describe & in the photo is a lupine. They fix nitrogen, and are very good for pollinators. Not sure if any parts are edible.

Dale Hodgins wrote:

Devon Olsen wrote:yeah pics 127, 190 and 192, osme others as well

i ask because i think it may be the same as some sort of plant i have out back, it has those purple stalks with pea like things developing afterwards, though much smaller "peas" than what one would normally see, also saw some near a mountain lake yesterday evening, a LOT more stalks per plant and fuzzier pods, just trying to figure out what it is exactly so i can find out if its possibly a wild edible

Here is the plant. As expected, the seed pods are well on their way.

Dale Hodgins wrote:

Devon Olsen wrote:yeah pics 127, 190 and 192, osme others as well

i ask because i think it may be the same as some sort of plant i have out back, it has those purple stalks with pea like things developing afterwards, though much smaller "peas" than what one would normally see, also saw some near a mountain lake yesterday evening, a LOT more stalks per plant and fuzzier pods, just trying to figure out what it is exactly so i can find out if its possibly a wild edible

Here is the plant. As expected, the seed pods are well on their way.

that is VERY similar, just bigger/ bushier from the looks of it, and a little more rounded, perhaps same family?
do you have any idea what it may be?

btw, i like the way water settles in the center of the fingers after rain, very pretty:)

When I first began photographing, I was content to get any clear shot. Now that it appears that most bugs will eventually be captured by my camera, I'm trying to get them doing things other than gathering nectar and I'm trying to get shots that show more than a top view. By placing the camera low against the flower it is possible to get side on shots which display the legs and undersides.

The third photo here shows a very tattered butterfly who is still flying and feeding. It's late in the season but this one may have also been caught in a wind storm. I admire any creature that keeps on going despite injury and fatigue.

Many species of flies and bees are quite similar to one another in basic structure. Abdomen colour and pattern are often vastly different. Since they all have huge eyes, I think it's safe to assume that they know their own kind based on these markings just as gazelles use horn shape as an identifier. The ones with the thick black band and thin white band are uncommon. Those with the black and yellow pattern are very common and come in two sizes.

This is a common spider around here. This one was hard to get a good shot of , so I coaxed it out to one of the web support cables.

It didn't like being messed with and crawled away. Little droplets appeared by its mouth. It may have decided to bite me.