Another “First”

As mentioned in my last post, Macro Photography is my passion. The bees have been more active lately and they always make for good, if challenging, macro subjects. They are tiny, 10 – 12 mm, infuriatingly fast, and most shots seem to be of their bums. A couple of weeks ago, while shooting the common Honey Bee, I noticed something very unusual, a blue bee. I kid you not. I got a pretty cruddy shot of it, but was able to ID it online. It is a Blue-Banded Bee. After that, Miss Bluebee became my own personal challenge, and I was determined to get some good shots of this wee beastie. So, day after day I would grab my kit, head off into the scrub and set up on the ground near the only patch of purple flowers where I had seen her.

After two weeks of stalking, I got lots of Honey Bees.

…but none of Miss Bluebee

This is how it happened. One day, whilst lying on the ground, I just happened to look up as I shifted my position, and there staring right at me, was a juvenile Eastern Brown snake. Truth be known, I didn’t know what it was at first, the band around its neck threw me, but I was able to ID it later. I started to move slowly, getting into a sitting position, and so did the snake. Move slowly that is, not sitting upright. It began to move towards me, then changed its mind, did a 180, and headed back the way it came. Needless to say, after that I spent more time looking for the snake than I did the bees.

The Blue-banded bee is considerably different from the other bees in the area. Hold in mind these are just my observations, not scientific facts.

• They move differently, much quicker and in straight lines, up down left right
• They have a higher pitched buzz (I guess that’s consistent with faster moving wings and moving more quickly)
• Apart from the obvious colour difference, their faces and body segments are different
• They have a very long sheath that protects their tongue, which they tuck under their body in flight and extend when they go in for the pollen
• They are more nervous of humans; the slightest movement and she was off. A single click of the shutter and she was off, whereas the honey bees just don’t care.

Other interesting facts, courtesy of Google are that the Blue-Banded Bees are solitary, living in a hole in the ground, and that the males have five bands while the females only have four, and they collect pollen differently. A technique called “Buzz Pollination”. Some flowers hold their pollen in minute capsules, the Blue banded bee will wriggle inside the flower and shake its body to release the otherwise unreachable pollen. And, even though I had never seen one before, they are quite common all around Australia.

For the first week, of focussing on her, I got…zip. But while waiting for her I did get a few other bugs.

After two weeks of sitting in the sun with my knees cramping and my bum going numb, I worked out that for every twenty minutes waiting, I was rewarded with, on average, ten seconds to try and catch her. I know…why bother? Well for one thing, she is super pretty. For another, I never give up on a challenge.

Finally, in my third week of stalking Miss Bluebee, I got her. It seemed she was finally getting used to me and was hanging around a bit longer. So, without further ado, swipe past this first image and meet the elusive Miss Bluebee.

Now I’m not too sure what my next challenge will be, but I do hope it will require me to stand up.

See you out there somewhere

On tow and on the go!