Bees

I always thought that taking pictures of bees is kind of lame...haha. Guess I just got sick of bees getting all the attention. I must confess however that I have also succumbed to the temptation of snapping pics of bees when the day is warm and flowers are blooming.

These two pictures were taken outside my apartment. The tree was blooming (still is to some extend) and since it was a warm, calm day, the bees were out in masses! With my windows open, I could hear the humming of the bees wings from inside my room.

I like this picture :). Bee butt. Looks shy and...sneaky.

 I saw this bee during my hike at Point Reyes, California in March 2010. I had no idea what bee it was, although I guessed that it was a bumblebee. I asked Katharina, a fellow grad student who studies bees, and she confirms that it was a Bombus melanopygus, a species of bumblebee. The thing that caught my eye was the reddish thing on its hindlegs. That's supposed to be the place where bees keep the pollen they collected, and it's called a pollen basket (or 'corbicula'). I have never seen pollen of any colour but yellow, yet this bee seemed to have red pollen! Katharina told me that pollen colour can be quite variable--yellow, red, orange and even........PURPLE! Now I would really like to see purple pollen~