Not another bloody bee!

Yes, fellow blippers, I am very much afraid it is another bloody bee. But it is doing something different.

Because I have the 12 mm extension ring on the macro 100 mm lens, I can see so much more than before. This bee is less than 5 mm long and being so tiny, it's really hard to observe any of his activities.

Like most daisies, this small seaside daisy (Erigeron karvinskianushas) has a ring of white or pinkish petals surrounding a golden yellow disk of florets. As each of the florets bursts open, it releases the pollen which is so highly desired by these tiny bees. I saw him digging vigorously into the head of the daisy, and scooping up the pollen with his front legs, and patting the pollen under his belly. If you care to look in large, you will see that he's pretty well loaded up.

These bees are very primitive and don't collect pollen on their back legs as do the honey bees.

Last night: last night, I was so tempted to change my Blip. I went into the back garden to do some watering after yesterday's blistering heat, and I saw the most wonderful thing - two huge monarch butterflies mating. Their wings were opening and closing very slowly, and it looked so tremendously beautiful.

But, by the time I had climbed three sets of steps in the garden, and run up a flight of stairs in the house, ran back (well, hobbled really) down all the steps with the camera they were still at it, but with wings closed, and the light was dropping, so the images I got were very ordinary and grainy.