Green Gold Bee 2
A typical nest entrance, fresh diggings on the downward approach – gravity works.
*Click on the pictures for a proper look …
I saw quite a few of these bees and not one entered the nest backwards, as other bees are seen to do, to lay an egg.
And as far as I could see they always exited head first too, suggesting an excavation allowing them to turn-around.
A youngster maybe, just emerged from underground obviously. Or where did the clay on its back and wing come from.
Compared to the one above this bee looks mature, strong and healthy. Perhaps that’s an egg filled abdomen, big as it is.
Everything dies … and I only saw the one such. No sign of spiders but this nest site would have its predators. Crabs maybe.
Foraging in the daylight can be hazardous for a crab but they know when to run and hide.
An other chapter in the life of the Green Gold Masked Bee, from the edge of the world into deep nature.
It all happens on the edge of a huge coastal mangrove forest, where a tidal creek separates it from the mainland and man’s mind made stuff.
The nest entrance is a comfortable size, and they always go in head first, but then they always come out head first. So, it seems, they have room in there to turn around.
At first I thought they could only be laying their eggs for hatching in the spring, until I saw the one that spent some time cleaning hardened clay from its back. It looks like a youngster to me.
You can see how it uses the hooked feet to scrape at the dirt. It suggests to me either a cave-in or it has just emerged from incubation. It looks smaller too, less full bodied than the others.
And then there was the one dead bee I found. It looks to have a torn wing suggesting struggle of some kind. Maybe the crab kind.
Just below the nest site are the homes of small crabs that peep out and occasionally risk a journey across the dark mud.
They are shy creatures, not comfortable being photographed, but they can be tricked into it.
Things to do, lives to live … the comings and goings, remind me of … ways to be.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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Nature's Place 
Wonderful shots, Mark. Wouldn’t mind a few of those, and some blue banded jobbies where I live. I’d spend all day chasing them.
(came here via DPR, a.k.a DrHook)
Thanks Roddy. I recognised your avatar from dpr.
You’d get nowhere chasing them. I just place something or situate myself by something and wait for one to stop. Usually works, if not one day then the next.
Ha, yes, I know that’s the case really. I was more into the metaphysicality of it all. I tend to spend far too much of my time nowadays sitting under a bush or staring into a patch of nettles. My wife thinks I’ve lost it totally.
She may be right, too.
Losing ‘it’ can be good for you. Depending on what ‘it’ is. I know a few exercises to help get rid of ‘it’ …
Of course, if you are sitting under a bush ‘thinking’ then you have lost a different ‘it’ and I’d get that seen to. :-)
Awesome Mark !!
Thanks Therese …
Gorgeous little jewels. Wish I could spend a sunny afternoon watching them.
They are … Mostly they are just coming and going to the nest but now and again one stops and does something out of the ordinary. Interesting to watch for a while.
I don’t like insects much but I love your photos of them. Makes them seem so beautiful.
Well, they are, aren’t they … and the same beauty behind the sunset is also behind the bee. It’s a matter of keeping the conditioned prejudice out of the seeing – seeing without thinking or emotion – and beauty is.
Thanks Ze…
What a handsome bee! Love the colors, and as usual for you – the clarity.
She is …
Thanks Mary.
Inspirational photos and words that make me believe that we can learn so much from the natural world. iIngenious solutions to challenges, beautiful colours and designs that would go unnoticed until expert photos and interpretations such as these capture and highlight them.
Thank you so much for sharing. Keep up the brilliant work!
Thanks Ev …
It’s all about the sense of things – to start, and not the mind.