Danelle is very proud of her work as an ecologist. I’m also proud that she is making a difference in the world just a little bit at a time. One of her passions is clean water. To help with that, she installed a rain garden in the front of our house. It gathers a fair amount of rainwater from our roof and holds it for a few hours after rain to help prevent flooding. The garden part of this is most interesting. There are a variety of natural plants that flower throughout the spring and summer. I noticed that there were a variety of bees that frequented the flowers. They ranged in size from small to quite large. This album is photos of the bees from a single day in the life of our rain garden.
I’ll be honest and state that Danelle took most of the good close photos. I didn’t have any desire to get that close to the bees even with a zoom. But she is brave and went quite near to get the shots.
If anyone cares to note, in the top photo, the pinkish-purple flower with the orange middle is a purple coneflower (Ecinacea purpurea). The rest of the flowers are called bee balm (Monarda fistulosa).
In the one photo on the left side that has 2 bees in it, notice the yellow bulges on the legs of the bee? This is pollen that attaches to her legs (most bees are girls). This is how pollen transfers from one plant to another and is the key to the existence of most of the fruits and vegetables that we all know and love (and even those we detest!).