Bee's Knees

Another lovely day today - a visit to the farmers' market to get a load of apricots, and spent time making apricot jam. I have got this special method of using only half the sugar in the recipe. The result is a much lighter, sharper jam - we like it very much, and it keeps perfectly well.

Yesterday afternoon, I was wandering around the front garden, and saw a blue banded bee foraging not two steps from my front door. They are funny little things, very feisty and think nothing of taking on a large perceived predator. They fly towards you very buzzing very loudly, and hover about 50 cm from you vibrating and turning their bodies side to side. Very like an acrobatic air-plane buzzing a crowd.

They are fairly easily spooked. The Rower came out with me at lunch time and we were talking - spooked the bee. I went out a bit later, with a mat, because the flagstones are very hot and were burning my knees - bee spooked again. They don't like quick movements, and they really don't like having a camera shoved in their faces. As I am using the 20 mm extension ring at the moment, I have to get closer than normal. Try as I might, I could not get their wings - they are like little helicopters.

Nevertheless I still managed to get a few good shots. In fact, towards the end of the shoot there were two of them buzzing about. You can only tell the difference between male and female by the number of bands - males have 5 and females have 4. And I couldn't get close enough to tell which was which.

This one has a fairly hefty load of pollen on its back legs, and will shortly be heading back to the nest to unload.

Bigger knees