Bee - utiful


I think I spend the most time in the garden staring into the ponds at the moment. 
I like to see all the colour variations on the multitudes of young fish that have been born in there and I spend a lot of time observing the bees.

They intrigue me, I have seen a bee misjudge the depth of a lily pad and land in the water, swim over to the nearest plant climb up it wait a few seconds and fly away again.


They come to the pond to drink, occasionally I see them in the pond flowers but more often using the water, they will often land on a damaged lily pad and drink through the holes as in the image above.


They often land in the protruding plants and climb down lower to drink the water gathered between it leaves, the bee above is drinking from the protruding plant.


I see bees of different body colours and patterns and the occasional European wasp.
I sometimes observe them to be doing something that looks like washing their legs. 


 They don't usually bother each other but today a saw one intentionally trying to bug every other bee on the one lily pad, nudging them and trying get under them ( it seemed ) they didn't like it. He moved away and it seemed he was having trouble getting a drink.


We see the most activity late in the afternoon when there is so much bee activity with them coming and going. Most of this behaviour is all a mystery to me but intrigues me nonetheless.

I love that we cater to them not just with fruit and flowers but as a watering spot too.
I never really thought about Bee's drinking before I was a pond owner.

Comments

  1. What fantastic photos, Tammy. You really got quite wonderful at photography now,
    xxx

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    1. Thank you Beautiful! I was down on my knees precariously leaning down into the pond, up close and personal for these. I still hope to get a better camera one day ( maybe this year? ) xx

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  2. We used to keep bees on our kitchen roof in the suburbs and also on a bush block. People do't think about it but bees need water as you have seen. Your pond will be most welcome to them. In the bush we used to use a bucket of water dug down into a hole so it would not fall over. We would fill it and float light wood on top which the bees would use as a landing spot to drink from. It would still float as level went down through evaporation.

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    1. Hi Jan,

      Thanks for sharing this, I do enjoy when others share their experience and knowledge with me here. Have a great week. :)

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  3. Super photos Tammy, I can understand your fascination, hubby and I often watch our birds and their behavior is remarkably similar. We have a wall fountain and the local pigeon family's antics bring a smile to our faces, just as our small ravens do when they come down each morning for a feed. Isn't nature wonderful?

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  4. Those photos are just amazing Tammy. You should enter a competition.

    Anne xx

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  5. Glad you take time to stop and take it all in Tammy, I love to stop life and do the same!

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