Laden

It's sort of possible that some of you may have worked out that I am besotted with our tiny native bees. Personally, I think "besotted" is a bit cruel - but there you are.

What happened was that some of us misread the calendar and thought we were going to a function at the Old Government House today. So we headed off into the Belair Park - Old Government House was not open for business - gates locked, nary a soul in sight. So then some of us realised that a mistake had been made, and we trotted off into the State Flora Nursery which happens to be right next door to the House.

It's a delightful place, surrounded by a native garden which attracts birds, bees, butterflies - in other words it's Paladian Heaven. The staff are incredibly interested and helpful. It's a wonderful place to visit.

So, here we have a shot I've been wanting to get for a while. I really wanted it against a blue flower because you can more easily see the way these bee pack themselves with pollen. But you get what you get.

You can see that they straddle their hairy back legs right out, (almost doing the splits) and place each grain of pollen against the hairs. When they are full, they pack the underside of their bellies. This little bee is just about fully laden.

Very yellow