Filed under: animals, bees, insects, nature, photography | Tags: animals, bees, fly, friends, insects, nature, photography, spiders, wildlife
sigh.
i know.
i haven’t written much lately. busy with the photography business and busy trying (unsuccessfully) to get my life straightened out.
cody bear and pickles are doing great. we just finished a super long walk in the cool fall air.
“why haven’t we heard about insects lately?” you’re asking. right? you’re asking that?
well, i have to admit…my heart wasn’t really into it after buzzy and dr. bee left town.and also, strangely….the bees have disappeared. i’ve always had bees sleeping here. but not for months.
what i did have was 7 black widows on my front porch. i had a friend come over one night after i realized they were there. we launched a wild assault and killed 6 that night. i killed on the day before.
they’re gone now. can’t have them there. too dangerous for the munchkins.
so…fly, mosquito, spider. but no bee.
i went to the botanical gardens with buzzy this morning and i took this picture for dennis!
“giant bee dennis! run away run away!”
Filed under: animals, bees, insects, nature, photography | Tags: 40d, bees, canon, insects, macro, nature, photography, pictures
ok…let’s talk about it.
the new camera.
we all know goodbear loves her agapostemons. here is one taken with her new 40d and martha’s macro.
dude, your legs are hairy. but….i’m not calling the kettle black.
Filed under: bees, insects, nature, photography, wildlife | Tags: agapostemon, bees, ecology, insects, macro, nature, photography, science, wildlife
i can’t believe how lucky i am! for the second year in a row there is an aggregation of one of my favorite bees…the agapostemon!
they’re back, and this time….i have a macro on hand!
last year we discovered them in august and they hung around till mid november, numbers dwindling near the end of that time. it was sad.
i didn’t want them to leave. i was sure the next generation wouldn’t approve of my trees. but they’ve returned.
two nights in a row they have been on the same branch, a bunch of males, just under 50 or so, bedding down for the night. (last year they were on a tree right next to them on a slightly lower branch.
around 10pm the bulk of the bees have landed. they spend much of the night walking over eachother, looking for the perfect spot. late into the night they settle down into a deep sleep, eyes still appearing to be open, but antennae dropped in slumber. they’re early risers, gone before i wake up around 6-6:30 ish.
i feel very lucky to have this interesting wildlife situation right outside my back door.
oh, and by the way…if you want to see other photos of small things from nature, you can visit my photoblog.
Filed under: animals, bees, border collies, dogs, insects, pets | Tags: agapostemon, animals, bees, border collie, dogs, insects, pets, photography
hi everyone!
well, great news….my bees are back! remember my cluster of agapostemons? i found them on a different tree last night, one tree closer to the house about 2 feet higher than last year’s branch.
how are the dogs? great. cody bear weighs a ton! he’s really putting some poundage on. he and pickles have done really well in agility the last two weeks. might we be out of the veterinary woods? (should i not have mentioned it?)
buzzy is “officing” at my house these days. cody bear kept her company while she worked today, but pickles was busy playing with her friends at day care…
p: what are you doing mom?
gb: i’m trying out martha’s new hoodman r.a.v. with the wide angle lens.
p: well knock it off, you’re embarrassing me in front of my dog friends.
br: who is this crazy lady sitting in the middle of the patio?
p: no clue. never saw her before in my life….
Filed under: bees, insects, nature, pets, photography, wildlife | Tags: bees, damselfies, insects, nature, photography, photos, wildlife
as some of you know, i have started a nature blog, but i wanted to fill you in here, as well: today buzzybeegirl and i had a field trip!
here’s what we saw:
damselflies
dragonflies
tarantula hawks
paper wasp
anthophorid(bee)
perdita(bee)
agapostemon(bee)
ducks
red wing blackbirds
grackles
sliders(turtle)
paper wasp
whiptails(lizards)
turkey vulture
milkweed bug
marine blue butterflies
Filed under: animals, bees, dogs, insects, nature, pets | Tags: animals, bees, dogs, friends, insects, life, nature, pets
as you know…buzzybeegirl successfully defended her masters thesis on the effects of urban fragmentation on the reproduction of trap-nesting bees. you know that…right?
anyway…tonight we celebrate right here at cody bear and pickles’ place! tables have been rented, everything is in place.
even the dogs are dressed up:
yes, pickles DOES look pissed. she hates bandanas, even though her gramma made them specially for these two bug lovin’ dogs.
and look at cody bear, playing the clown in this shot. 
put your tongue back in your mouth cody bear! sheesh. next thing you know, he’ll be crossing his eyes for pictures!
cody bear loves wearing bandanas. he gets all waggy. picky needs to get used to it because i love nothing more than a cute dog in a colorful bandana. that’s my way.
Filed under: animals, bees, friends, insects, life, nature | Tags: animals, bees, bugs, education, friends, insects, life, nature
buzzybeegirl gave a stellar defense of her masters thesis today. and while we KNEW she would pass the interview with her committee, we were still anxious with how long it was taking.
APPARENTLY she was coasting through the q & a while we were sweating it out in the courtyard. her dear hubby dancing bee helped us kill time by getting permission from the currator to take us on an intimate tour of the insect collection!!!
see? they have pins.
and those were goodbear’s favorite bees!
what the? those legs are too long, ya freak show!
oh…now…those are pretty.
…?
don’t be SCARubED…they’re just beetles!
so we loved the insect trays, then we found out buzzy got her masters. in the meantime…i ruined my new white shirt by spilling coffee TWICE! (dork) and…i used the rest of my day to get some ADORABLE dog photos i will show you on dogdaily photo soon!
Filed under: animals, bees, insects, life, nature | Tags: animals, bees, biology, ecology, insects, macro, nature, photography, wildlife
i have all these new bee pix…and i took them with buzzy’s macro.
so i’ll show you the pix, then i’ll show you them with…THE PEN. our signature move: the bee with the papermate ballpoint pen….so you can see how tiny these little guys are!
the bee is smaller than the head of my ball point pen!
all of these bees are sleeping. awake…they’re just to hard to capture in a photograph. so small and quick.
i will be posting bees regularly at my new blog: digitalmuzzle.wordpress.com and as always, you can learn heaps about bees at buzzybeegirl!
oh and hey!…these pix are copywritten!
Filed under: bees, flowers, insects, nature, photography | Tags: animals, arizona, bees, cactus, hiking, insects, nature, photography
we took a day trip and i got up close and personal with these gigantic saguaro cacti.
as you can see, these are very tall. we were lucky they were all over, even beside the road. to get these shots i had to use my 75-300mm telephoto lens and stand on the back of the truck. this shot was from about ten feet away.
this one is from about 5 feet away. good thing because it is a much smaller bee! it was about the size of a large grain of rice.
see how tall they are?
the entire area was packed with bees, but we weren’t scared as they were all native bees. we didn’t see any honeybee swarms.
several varieties of bees were wallowing in the saguaro blossoms. other native bees were buzzing around about a foot above the ground. everywhere you looked you saw a bee flying around.
it was great!
