Saturday 23 July 2011

Bumbles in the Garden

Lavender flowers in the garden in the afternoon sun were humming with bumblebees today.

I still haven't managed to justify robbing the piggy bank for a macro lens so I decided to have a go at some photos using the 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens (handheld and no IS) on the Olympus E-420 DSLR. The photos aren't very sharp but I will persevere and have a few more attempts next week perhaps using a tripod.

My bee id skills are at about the same level as my moth id skills (!) and I particularly find it hard to differentiate between Garden, Buff-tailed and White-tailed but I think the first few photos are of a Buff-tailed bumblebee.

I love the wings in this first photo - looking like colourless stained glass









There were several Common Carder Bees





I checked the St Johns Wort flowers so beloved by the Red-tailed bumblebee but most of the flowers are now past their best and there were only a few common carder bees around.

Bumble bees have a lot of great country names - according to "Bugs Britannica" by Peter Marren and Richard Mabey alternative names include: bumbard, bummie-bee, dumbledore, dusty miller, gairy bee, hummobee, sunny sodger and red arsie. What super names!

A tame (juvenile?) dunnock was busy collecting food from under the feeding station as I was trying to take bee photos.

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6 comments:

  1. The Quacks of Life23 July 2011 at 20:01

    love that first pic

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  2. Ragged Robin23 July 2011 at 20:09

    Thanks Pete. I was quite pleased with that one and is the reason why I shall persevere and try and take some more photos :D

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  3. Rob23 July 2011 at 23:05

    Lavender and bees - a wonderful combination. Those country names for bumblebees are fun. Does this mean Professor Albus Dumbledore (in Harry Potter) was named after a (white-tailed?) bumblebee?

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  4. Ragged Robin24 July 2011 at 00:14

    Thanks Rob.

    I've just rechecked the Bugs Britannica book Rob about country names (I think Dumbledore is country name for any bumble bee :D) and the book suggests that bumble bees were amongst the familiars for witches and therefore may have given JK Rowling the name of her wizard! Its a great name for a wizard and a bee!

    Looking forward to seeing the final film.

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  5. Ian24 July 2011 at 07:43

    Nice photos of the bees and lavender, well done with the tele lens.

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  6. Ragged Robin24 July 2011 at 10:54

    Thanks Ian - glad you liked the photos.

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