Neon Returns
Blue Banded Bee asleep at night on a twig of suitable size for grasping between mandibles. No insomnia here.
*Click on the pictures for a proper look … and click again
Tough little creature, the Neon Cuckoo Bee. Resting on the roof of the BBB’s house beneath the stairway.
Here she is surveying the activity around the BBB’s house from the nearest high point, all the better to act from.
Caught in the act, of laying in the BBB’s nest so her own young get a good start. A relaxed exit, for a robber.
Even while the BBB’s were buzzing her she stopped to preen, combing her face. Grooming is high on bee agenda.
By comparison the BBB’s were clearly agitated, entering and exiting the nest with mandibles spread for combat.
Just looking on, from a nearby nest. I think it was doing some excavation work, as the entryway changed shape.
I pass the house of Blue Banded Bees many times some days and see what is going on, which is not much, more often than not.
This time was no different but I stopped a while anyway, to see what may be. There were two BBB’s buzzing a particular entrance.
I got my camera and waited as one agitated BBB went at the doorway, disappeared into the nest, and returned backwards, still agitated.
Then another BBB did the same, so I set up to shoot in case anything appeared from inside the nest, as I have seen other BBB’s come out.
And there she was, Neon Cuckoo, came to the entrance from within and proceeded to preen, giving her head a combing with her front legs.
She was well aware of the apparently furious BBB’s but she was un-phased, being inured to such attentions by best practise of bees.
Instinct doesn’t allow for fear or stress in this being of a Cuckoo Bee, and it doesn’t have a thinking mind to interfere.
Doesn’t worry ‘what if’, stirring useless emotion to cloud its perception.
Simple intelligence, working as a bee.
Whatever works, it is what it is …
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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Nature's Place 
Great photos, thanks.
Thanks Mike.
You are awesome. I get so happy every time I get an email from you telling me you’ve put up a new post! You have inspired me, not only in my nature photography, but also in being kinder to the tiny creatures around me. Thank you!!
Isn’t it nice to live in times that allow us ordinary folk the time for these things and ways – as crazy as the world appears to be. And time to refine ourselves, so we can be the finest we can be. But it’s a matter of perception, what we acknowledge. The sense of things, in the being of it all, keeps it simple. Kinder too …
Thanks Anne.
Sometimes nature makes me very sad, with all the pain creatures inflict on each other, and I don’t think I can bear it. You have helped me bring some perspective to that, and for that also, I am grateful to you. You really are an amazing human being.
The wild creatures don’t suffer like people do. They experience the pain and soon enough move on or die. We tend to mull over the pain (real or imagined) and suffer for it, get emotional by thinking about it. We can be more like the wild creatures … and not suffer any more.
Beautiful, awesome parts of nature humans don’t ever pay attention to. Everything has a place.
It’s a busy little world of the bees, and others. All doing their part in the great earth machine. And not a problem in sight. Thanks D…
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Thanks Jeremy. Your site looks good.
Ok welcome
Fantastic Mark … Thanks for sharing.
Thanks David. It’s a pleasure.