Neon Once More
At first she looked fine, out of the nest and paused, taking stock of her sensible world.
*Click on the pictures for a proper look … and click again
As all sensible creatures do. Though her sense of things would be limited by her damaged antennae.
Later in the day it was apparent all was not well, still on the mud brick and now covered in dust.
Maybe from her diggings, laying her eggs, or something to do with her damaged appearance.
She was lively enough, for a while, though behaving as if disoriented, wings spread without flight.
And later still she was flagging, unstable flight attempts and always returning to the mud bring nest.
At one point she re-entered a nest hole and ducked from my attentive lens. Then came out again.
One time she failed to take off and hit the floor. Climbing up a skink jumped her and she lay still.
I picked her up and gave her a little water and she was away again. What happened then who knows, turn your back and the world changes. Life moves on …
Nothing has it good all the time. This Neon Cuckoo Bee was having trouble getting its bearings.
Lost one antennae and, it appears, one mandible. Maybe it was in a fight with a BBB.
Maybe it was born that way. Who knows … there are no guarantees in this life.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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Nature's Place 
Great photos. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Amaris.
Kind of breaks my heart… but you’re right – there are no guarantees… I hope she had a bit of good time after all…
I didn’t mean it to be sad, just a matter of fact. As it is to the bee.
This bee was magnificent, she just kept getting up, instinctively. No defeat or self-defeating emotion or thinking for her. If she could think or get emotional about the facts of her situation she would indeed be an unhappy bee, that’s a guarantee.
But she wasn’t, so the sun shines, the rain falls, and another bee is born and lives and dies free of unhappiness. That’s the good time, as any time free of unhappiness is. :-)