male bumblebee on lavender

I have been photographing bees in my garden all summer-it has been my project of the year-and there are still numbers flying, including more honeybees than I have seen for a while, but the variety of species is declining now.

I like this image of a Buff tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrrestris) as it is possible to count the 11 separate segments making up the straight part of the antenna, telling me this is a male. There are plenty of male bumbles about at present, but they will die along with the old queens and workers as the weather turns colder.

This one is feeding on lavender nectar. Lavender has been sustaining the bumblebees for weeks now, and if I could only grow one summer flowering plant, that's what it would be.