Strange bumble bee

A lovely sunny day in Northampton - and managed to get out of bed in time to go outside in the garden before lunch. Well it was a late night last night.

I wanted to try and get a shot of a bee or a butterfly or a ladybird with my macro lens, and so I placed myself next to a convenient forsythia bush and waited.

After a quarter of an hour there was no activity apart from this flipping fly.
I have to say that I was not aware that flies did the same sort of stuff as bees - furtling about in the flowers getting nectar and whatever else they get.
Although I wouldn't want to try out the sort of honey this fella would make.

I hadn't realised just how difficullt it is to take a handheld close-up of an insect, getting the bloody thing to stay stilll is an art in itself, although he seemed to oblige. Focussing is a pain in the arse - I had to use a smaller aperture to try and increase the depth of field, but that meant the shutter speed was slower than I liked - I was already wobbling about all over the place anyway.
In addition to this, the branch kept moving, and it took a bit of time for me to realise that it was the lens pushing against the branch that was causing it!

This was not the best shot I could have got - with time I'm sure I could have got a more interesting angle.
But he was having none of it - he just flew away with out a by or leave.

I'll try to find a bee next time.