Blue Banded Bee …
A Blue Banded Bee from the same bee hotel as the Neon Cuckoo Bee lays. How they roost outside the nest.
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She’s asleep at night which allows me to set the background, somewhat. For the contrast necessary to appreciate it.
There are always limitations, to anything, of what’s at hand for the job. And variables can be employed.
Such as angles and lighting and background – sometimes, and you never know what you’ve got ’til you see it big.
So I look to see what may be, what looks good inside, guided by experience and intuition, and shoot away outside.
Within constraints, of available space in surrounds, close to the ground, under the stairway … pain in the knee …
And then there’s the variables of the medium, composition, saturation, sharpness, etc … that add up to a …
It all goes to making a picture, or image, attractive or not. There are universals to that, I think. What ‘eye’ enjoy.
But the biggest attraction is the creature – from created – itself. No accident of numbers is this little beauty. Though its numbers can be calculated, sort of …
… on a flower, a print of a flower, for background while she sleeps.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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Neon Signs …
She waits by the entrance to one Blue Banded Bee nest site …
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… where she will be buzzed until she takes some action.
Sometimes she flys off and around the place …
… only to return to another place she can fulfil her nature.
You can’t blame a bee for being a bee …
… whatever kind of bee she is, opportunistic in this case.
… stealing the efforts of the Blue Banded Bees nature.
But a bee doesn’t steal, knowingly taking from another.
She just sees an opportunity and takes it, by her nature.
No point complaining about what can’t be changed.
Best to let it be, be a bee – ho ho …
Then we might be able to let everything else be.
What a world that would bee.
Signs of life … the Neon Cuckoo Bee has taken to the Blue Banded Bee hotel with a gusto.
At first, early summer, one showed up and the BBB’s were agitated by her presence.
Now there are three or four around the house, two I know of to the BBB hotel.
And the BBB’s do chase them but as a reflex, not unduly concerned.
The ever shifting cohort of flies also seem to have their place.
And though there appears to be the usual struggles of living …
… amongst the small creatures, they don’t get unhappy.
Cause there’s no problem in beeing.
As long as I don’t think.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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Giant – ish
The mother of them all, undisturbed in her feeding.
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A bugs eye view, sees the sky through the tree branches above.
There’s an elegance to the form, weighty creatures though.
A youngster, from the wing buds, you wouldn’t know it otherwise.
Manoeuvred for the shot and the background.
Full wings, sun dried grass below. A hot summers day.
Can’t blame them for loving the bush juice in the recent heat.
She breathes through holes in her side, I’m sure she can close.
Angles, gotta take what can be since they can only be examined on the big screen.
Perfection is not an option for pursuit, but may be encountered …
… in its natural being, a bug in an apparently messy nature.
These huge bugs are thirsty for the butterfly bush sap, in competition with the need of the blue banded bees for nectar.
They can have a few heads but when they start on the big stems they are evicted to another part of the garden.
Soon after they are back, such is life. Part of the gardens management, like watering. Doing it as I go.
It pays to be careful of judging what’s good and bad in the garden, the big picture rules.
Practises are subject to change, like the garden itself, and some stay the same.
For the love of it … what else.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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Night Hawk
In the shadows beneath the house, nose on top of a bees nest entrance, a Hawk Moth waiting for night.
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It looked like it might be feeding, it has a long proboscis for the purpose, strong enough to pierce.
Unmoved by my presence, I was within a couple of inches, to see the detail of her eye. A gentle little thing.
A feathery coat keeps her cool and dry, probably helps with flight too. Nature is no slouch when it comes to design.
The garden has been drying out with the recent summer heat, in spite of the daily watering.
I was not surprised to see this creature in the afternoon, clinging to the side of the bee hotel.
At first I thought it might be using its proboscis to extract nourishment from a nest it was on.
But no, it was just waiting out the bright of the day in the cool shadows, being nocturnal.
I suspect the garden is a beacon to the small life in range of sensing it.
When so few water theirs it must be positively inviting.
A little green oasis is a blessing.
Of nature, and the life behind.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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Nature's Place 
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