Bees in November!
Yesterday morning, before the rainstorm, I happened to look at the Sasanqua Camellia 'Marti' in full bloom. It's about the only thing left that's in flower right now. The amazing thing is that there were about a dozen bees flying and landing on the flowers. Not any old bee but honeybees. I don't see many honeybees anymore and only the occasional one or two but not a dozen at one time and this late in the year. It was 72 degrees so I guess the bees still weren't in hibernation. Probably gathering a late season snack before sacking in.
I gave the flower a sniff to see what the bees were attracted to. Well...I got a snoot full of almost nothing. Sort of a musty smell. Not what I had expected. Bees must have a different kind of smeller.
Note the pollen packet on the bee's leg in the first picture. And an interloping yellowjacket coming for the feast in the last pic.
It was quite a windy day so it was a good test for my new camera with image stabilizer which worked amazingly well. I could never have taken the shots with my old camera, everything would have been a blur. I can highly recommend the Panasonic DMC LZ2 and above digicams for this reason alone. It also has nice saturated colors. As usual click on the photos to enlarge.
posted by Ki at
5:38 AM
7 Comments:
I think this weather is quite amazng for so late in the year . We almost hit 70 in Boston today! I was out in short sleeves.But I didn't see any honey bees....
Oh wow! I haven't seen any flying buzzing creatures in my yard for at least two weeks now--and the last time I did see any, they were sooooo slllooooowww.
carletongardener, My daughter in Cambridge must have appreciated the 70 degree weather. She always complains of the cold.
Kim, when we were travelling through Ohio we came upon an amazing sight - a hornets nest in a tree. It was near a campsite and the owner was trying to spray the nest with somekind of poison. People can't seem to leave things alone esp. when the hornets weren't bothering anyone. Major bees tho. I didn't know they were sooo big.
This leave a comment feature is the pits. I left a message last night dutifully typing in the lenghty word verif. and poof it dissapears into the ether never to be seen again. It didn't even keep a copy so I could attempt to publish it again!
Is that what happened to mine? I was trying to compliment you on the photo and the exquisite 'Marti'. I didn't have camellias in IL, but there are some single peonies in that color, with a not dissimilar golden fluff at the center.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Hi Annie in Austin,
Thank you for the compliment. I too have thought peonies looked very similar to camellias. We have some white wood peonies that look like camellias except for the red center surrounding the stamens.
I think that's what may have happened to your comment. Poof into the ether. Thanks for being not easily deterred.
Kudos on the new camera *two thumbs up*. Looks like you are putting it to good use. Your Camellia is gorgeous.
Chris
Hi dfp,
Not anywhere close to a good dslr but the camera is small enough to easily carry and I was pleasantly surprised that the image stabilizer worked. I thought it was all hype. The camellia is struggling in this zone but very beautiful. I feel a little torn growing something where it shouldn't be just to satisfy my own pleasure. They were selling them in a nursery so we bought them thinking the plants would be ok but two promptly died after the first winter and this one just barely until I planted it next to the house in the most protected area of our yard.
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