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August 16, 2009
The bees!
The bees seemed unusually agitated this morning, buzzing angrily about the Trumpet Vines. I took a series of photos of this particular fellow emerging from one of the blooms. In this shot he's cleaning his tongue. (Click on image for larger version)
This is a cropped version of the previous shot; you can see the structure of the tongue, with the prongs or spikes on the end. (Click on image for larger version)
The bee gives its tongue one last scrape with a front leg before getting ready to move on. (Click on image for larger version)
With a load of pollen on his back, it's clearly time for this worker bee to head back to the hive. (Click on image for larger version)
I mentioned that the bees seemed unusually agitated, constantly -- for lack of a better word -- harassing each other, whereas they normally wait their turn for a chance to load up. When I managed to get a look at them from above, I noticed that they seemed to be a different variety from the normal crowd. The body seems wider, less elongated, and the stripes seemed a paler shade of yellow. (Click on image for larger version)
Posted by Mike Lief at August 16, 2009 11:10 PM
Comments
CLOSE THE BORDERS!!! Immigrant bees, crowding out the natives. Probably they are Okies.
Posted by: The Little Coach at August 17, 2009 07:33 AM