Love in the afternoon...

Or...
In flagrante delicto
Get a room!
Buzz off

Well, whatever title you like...what you have is to bumble bees having their happy time interrupted.  I've actually never seen bees mating so this would have been blip-worthy with or without the interloper.  It's very interesting to me how much smaller the male is than the female - I'd been thinking they were two different species of bumble bees but apparently just different genders.  Who knew?  Apparently the mating is a long process since when I went back out about a half hour later, they were still there.  Gotta love nature.

I went out this morning to try to get some fall foliage shots - I had a nice walk and got some okay shots, but I clearly have much to learn about landscapes.  This one is the best of the lot but not what I was hoping for.  Personally, I prefer this close up of some foliage on an old fence

I posted two other bee shots on Flickr, Two bees having tea and a closer shot of our Happy couple.  So many bees out there right now!

No sign of the towhees today so they must be on their way south.  Saw a couple of yellow-rumped warblers in the yard, though, and the catbirds are still around.  Leaves are falling rapidly from the trees now along with tons of acorns from the oaks.  Good nut year - which means that the bears will be more fertile this winter.  Yes, I know - kind of geeky that I know this.  

Rain showers in the forecast for later today, but tomorrow should be nice, so more walking planned.  Last year on this day, I blipped a beautiful White Peacock butterfly - today I saw a beautiful monarch in my garden, passing through on his way south.  Parallels.  

Toodles!

Post Script:  I found some interesting info on these bees (bombus impatiens) and thought I'd add it here, for my own reference:  The time taken for matings varies widely from 10 minutes to 80 minutes. The sperm is transferred within the first 2 minutes of mating, and the bees are in a rather vulnerable position, so why do they continue for so long? Well after the male passes his sperm into the queen he pumps a sticky mixture into her genital opening. This genital plug takes time to harden, and once hardened can completely or partially block the entry of sperm from other males for up to three days. So even though the two are in a vulnerable position, it is in the interest of the male to hang on to ensure that his genes have a good chance of being passed on to the next generation, and as most males don't even manage to mate, and those that do usually just mate once, he wants to be sure his genes will be passed on.