Bumblebee Hard At Work | Mrsroadrunner Photography

Bumblebee Hard At Work | Mrsroadrunner Photography




Meet again this Bumblebee! This Bumblebee is working on a Foxglove Flower, even this big Bumblebee can still fit into the flower blooms!





This Bumblebee acts aggressive but really, never had a bad experience. This species will challenge you by aggressively flying quickly into your face, or check you out by circling you. This is what bumblebee's do with flowers, they go round and round. They work on some flower blooms by circling them as well. This is just from my observations, if the Bumblebee does that in front of me I am sure they show the same behavior in your garden?

I do like the shot above showing the two sets of wings!



Some photographs I use ONLY for id use, some are stand alone photographs. Which is which is something I have to decide as the photographer. I feel I may put a couple of these shots out in the public as stand alone photographs? We will just have to wait and see?





I do not use my tripod all that much. Why? I feel tripods are restrictive when it comes to wildlife. I am not that far away from my subjects. If they would allow me closer I would change lenses and get in closer ha! Fact is I had a visitor here yesterday who did not stick around long and who was just to close! I did not have the time to change lenses..... if you are a photographer you know not everything comes out the way you see it in your head. All we can do is do our best!





This is the last photograph of this series I am showing. I am going to try to limit my photographs on these blogs to six or less. Lets see how I do with that ha!

Thank you for coming by and checking out this Bumblebee working hard on this Foxglove Flower. BTW the Foxglove does have it's bad point however the great thing about growing Foxglove Flowers is? The pollinators LOVE the Foxglove!

Mud Dauber Wasp in The High Desert | Mrsroadrunner Photography

Mud Dauber Wasp in The High Desert | Mrsroadrunner Photography




Meet the Mud Dauber Wasp that we have at our pond getting what else? Mud!





At this stage of the game these Mud Dauber Wasps have never given me any reason to think they are aggressive. They come for the mud provided by this small pond of ours. Never have seen them at the other pond.....





The Mud Dauber Wasps do what they do, then fly off. We are pretty good about checking for nests of any kind here. Never have seen a nest of these! Nor do I want to.





I am a sucker for shadows, I just like them and when I see a shadow like above I have been known to show the photograph! When the Mud Dauber Wasps are busy they do tend to turn their head and the activity away from me. I have noticed this behavior in other species as well.





Since the Mud Dauber Wasp has done nothing to make me think they are a pest, I just let them be. However to my understanding others do consider these Mud Dauber Wasps pests. I do make such things as nest building undesirable here, even though other species can make a nest rather quickly! Surprising the both of us as to how fast and where nest building happens. We do have to destroy some nests due to the stinging behavior of some of these species.

In this shot you can see where the stinger is, perhaps this is why the Mud Dauber Wasp turns it's head away from me? I have no intentions of taking the mud this Mud Dauber Wasp is working on, however the Mud Dauber Wasp does not know this right?





In the above shot, you can see the round ball of mud this Mud Dauber Wasp is working on. Seeing them fly with the mud is quite funny for take off is a tad bit hard. There has to be a thinking process?? These photographs I got right in there due to the Mud Dauber Wasp has never shown any aggression my way. Though I do not think I push the creature either. The Mud Dauber Wasp just does not act as if it wants to sting.

Thank you for coming by and checking out these new photographs I worked on yesterday however took these photographs back some time ago... just never got around to looking at.

Coneflower Blooms

Coneflower Blooms




Hope your weekend went well! Meet the Coneflower and visitor from the photographs from July 25 2014 I am working on this morning.



As you can see by the end of July the Coneflower are not at their peek. These Coneflower were placed in a spot facing the southern sun in front of the Iris Patch several years ago. The Iris flowers have outgrown the Coneflower and the Coneflower need to be moved for several reasons, or separated planted in other locations.



The Coneflower have grown, bloomed in this south location. However this location gets pretty hot! As you can see from these photographs the blooms just do not like this heat from the southern sun. I say the Coneflowers are easy to grow! The Coneflowers are forgiving.



Forgiving is the Coneflower, however as you can see from these photographs the Coneflowers are compromised. Such plants are vulnerable to pests, and other attacks that we may or may not see under the ground. What we can not see is where all the good stuff really goes on! The flowers are what we see! This is why we all love flowers! The pretty colors, shapes, sizes and fruit that some plants produce. Truly though, all the real action is where we can not see. The roots!

Why these Coneflowers in our garden need moved, or since they are growing in this location separated if can be and moved elsewhere. I am thinking the Coneflowers need more shade. Protection from the triple digit temperatures of the High Desert? As I have said we have had these for oh, three years now? This in no way makes Guy or I experts at growing Coneflowers.



Here in the High Desert we are supposed to be zone 5. Everyone lives in a zone. You have a zone you live in too! However some people can live in more then one zone, like we do! Guy is very good at this zone stuff! Guy really is, and he is my teacher about growing here in the High Desert. Someone down the road can grow a plant that we can not. Though we have found places on our small piece of land that the people just right down the road have issues with. This of course is a topic of conversation with the neighbors and I. "How did you grow that", or "How come the frost killed mine and not yours"? Now this is the fun us gardeners have, figuring out what grows where!

Zones, it is good that you find out what zone you live in. Plant accordingly. This does not mean you can not grow whatever, just is a starting point. I found a zone chart if you want to check it out , United States Zone chart

Keep in mind the zone charts are just a starting point. I doubt to many people are going to guaranty you that nature does not change. Many things goes into determining the zones, weather patterns for what year... moon phases on and on and on!!



Honey Bee's ( Honeybee ), are one insect you will find on the Coneflower Blooms! One of these photographs I took, lets see if I put it up..... does not look like I had. Spider mites like the Coneflower. Nasty little bugs that drain the plant of liquid. Turning the host plant into a dried up, nasty looking mess!! Spider Mites will encase the host into a web for the younger spider mites to feed on. What if you see five spider mites I read where you have a infestation! There are several insect that will eat the Spider Mites, Lady Bugs or Lady Birds is one insect you want in your garden!! If you have to go buy Ladybugs!! Make sure if you feel the need to buy Ladybugs that you buy them from a company that does not ship you dead insects!! Buy locally if you can and keep in mind when you get the Ladybugs home give them a drink!! Spray the area down with a hose before setting the insect free, or soak a cotton ball in water is one way if you are setting them free in a inclosed area. Keep in mind, insects do not drink water as we do!

I personally have not seen aphids , or their caretakers the ants on the Coneflowers of ours.

I have seen as you can see in the photographs Honeybee's really like the Coneflower! Wasps, Carpenter Bees, Bumble Bees and more like the Coneflowers! I can not seam to recall if butterflies like the Coneflowers. I have seen the Hummingbirds near the Coneflowers however we grow several flowers in groups.... The color could attract a pollinator then the said pollinator may not want to work on said colored flower but go to the neighboring flower. This is our philosophy of growing. Not everyone does this! We just choose to.



You can see the Honey Bee doing its thing......



Here the Honeybee is really getting into the center which is rather spiny when you get right in there!



This Honeybee is done and flying off. I for one do not know if I want to speak about the medicinal uses for the Coneflower for I just do not want the responsibility of someone reading something I wrote and putting it into their body......

Thank you for coming by looking at my photography and reading my rambling of the Coneflower Blooms!

European Hornet

Mrsroadrunner Photography | European Hornet




Meet the European Hornet! Rather big , flashy insect visiting my Foxglove Flowers.



This is the first time I had noticed this visitor here at the house, or anywhere! The first three photographs are cropped. I was not sure what I was dealing with so gave this bee plenty of room! The series of photographs is rather long so I stuck to uploading just these six photographs. Also had to read up on this European Hornet, for like I said I never photographed this species before.



The neighbor home was not lived in for some years so I do wonder what the new neighbors may have living with them over there? Hopefully this European Hornet and the other Hornets were just passing through?

Reading up on the European Hornet it sounds like this is not something one wants to deal with as far as a nest goes! Since we are the High Desert we have plenty of canyons. The state is trying to clean up the juniper trees that could be home to such creatures, the canyon rocks may make a nice place to set up shop for such creatures to build their nests?

The flowers you see here is the Foxglove. The Foxglove is not a flower you want to go unchecked! This species of flower is pretty and I do like the Foxglove, however I also worked for a ranch where I had to kill the Foxglove (for a reason, however we are not talking about the Foxglove Flower), so ying yang.



I like the shot above for the shot above shows the abdomen, or the nasty part of any Hornet. I can not express to you how big this European Hornet is! I read where the males do not sting. HELLO, I just do not know which is male, which is female and I for one do not want to find out the hard way!

The only "true", Hornet is North America is what I read. When I read that something is "extremely" aggressive this is just not something my common sense had to be told. I do not pick up, try to touch any of the creatures that is new to me for such a reason. Ignorance is not a pretty thing. One look at this insect told me do not mess with it!

Red to me means fire. Sure some creatures are like mushrooms. Which one is ok, which one is not? Seeing this creature in my garden also is one reason I told the neighbor that I really do not want his children to come with me in my garden until he and his wife are sure the children are not allergic, and know the rules about such wildlife that can sting. The children are super good kids and watched and waited where I asked them to.

The other neighbor who feels it is ok to come into my garden, pick my flowers (huge no no), and do whatever she wants to without my permission is another story.



We do have wasps here in the High Desert! So many wasps that they set up shop what seams like over night!! Constantly looking out for these nests and destroying them. Wasps will set up shop even in peoples vehicles! I have rules, one of the rules is if you can hurt me you will not set up shop here!! People who know me in the real world know I just can not put up with such things. The wasps do try, got to give them credit for trying!! The European Hornet eats such things as wasps. Not that I will excuse the European Hornet from setting up shop here for this!

I would think if a person has the European Hornet setting up shop on their property the person would have common sense to pay a professional to take care of the nest. Some folks might be surprised to hear me say such a thing as to kill off something, however sometimes wildlife can get out of hand. Knowing I have such a Hornet even visiting the garden like the European Hornet has made me more alert, looking for such a nest, making such places as our lilac bushes / tree's not a place that would be a comfortable place for such a thing to set up shop in.

Knowing I am not my brothers keeper, or what my neighbors do or dont do I have no control over. I just wished folks were more aware of their environment. Specially when children are involved.



I get many visitors after my morning watering. Living here in the High Desert is different then living say, in the valley where I grew up. One has to water on this side of the Cascade Mountains if you want a garden! Even grass which I am not real fond of, though understand the benefits of such a thing as lawn, you have to water it too!! Since water is such a big deal here in the High Desert, visitors do stop and get drinks, perhaps something to eat before moving on. Once visitors know we are here, we do see the same species of visitors stop year after year. Some visitors set up shop, like I said though they have to be within my rules to stick around. The European Hornet is not within my rules.

My afternoon/evening watering we do get visitors. Though with Guy's work schedule the way it has been the last couple of years we have to get sleep sometime ha!

Thank you for stopping by and checking out my photography, and/or my observations of my world around me.

Bald-faced Hornet Eating

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Bald-faced Hornet Eating





Meet the Bald-faced Hornet. I came upon what I think is the same Bald-faced Hornet on several different days in our garden. This is from one of those days.

I noticed something rather large on one of the raspberry leaves, upon further investigation I observed this creature eating. Keeping my distance of about a foot seamed good for the both of us!



I really could not see or photograph clearly of what this Bald-faced Hornet was eating on. At times I thought it was a honeybee.



This week I noticed going through my photography archives (I found it easier to take photographs, then write and upload them later on), I found I had several new types of Hornets and Wasps show up, this was in June of 2014.



As I was observing this creature eating , I could sense it new I was photographing it. Just some of the movements it made. Not wanting to get stung I kept my distance. I hear the sting hurts??

Though I dont touch many of the things I photograph anyways, even things that dont sting. Some creatures can be harmed by something so thoughtless as the oils of our hands. Even the stress of handling some creatures can kill them. I learned this some time ago from a teacher of mine. I wonder if he knows that he was listened to by some of us students?



This Bald-faced Hornet did turn its back on me several times! I know by having such things as the snakes, some creatures feel if they can not see you, then you obviously can not see them! Makes sense if you only have the capacity to think only so far.....



Perhaps this Bald-faced Hornet just thought the sun was beating down and got to hot for eating it's meal? Moving in the shade did something to my light, however with the color of these Bald-faced Hornets you can still see its face. Not so much of what it is eating. Dose not hurt my feelings one bit!



MMM wonder what Wikipedia says about these Bald-faced Hornet?

Dolichovespula maculata (yep I will remember that name haha - what about you ha).

It makes a paper nest. I have several rules here, one of the rules is such things as the Hornets, Wasps are not allowed to set up shop here. They can visit, heck everyday if they wish. They can even get drinks here, but no setting up shop!! I got stung before walking by a truck we had. Since then this has been a rule of mine. Just keeps the peace here since , like Wikipedia says the female Bald-faced Hornet will continue to sting to protect her nest..... OMG can you imagine??

You can read more over there here .

I can regurgitate what is written over there or you can just read it yourself if you so choose.



My photographs can be enlarged by clicking on them taken you to the folder in which I placed these. There you can do all kinds of things, which should be making the photograph larger if you wish.



Since all was still going well with photographing this Bald-faced Hornet I just kept photographing it. Went with the flow you know?



I did go in a little closer, no these are not cropped these photographs are off my camera. Named so I can find them easily in my archive, uploaded to the website already named for optimization.



This Bald-faced Hornet is just doing what it would do, hopefully if I were there or not. At least this is what I am going for with my photography.

Some washing did take place, however sorry to say those photographs did not come out. At one point this Bald-faced Hornet did get tired of me photographing. Or at least that is what it seamed like as I watched it wash itself, then carry the small portion of its meal that was left under the leaf!



As the observation was winding down I moved further away into another spot and took these photographs.



This all was going down in the raspberry patch. The raspberries have a lot of things going on. Never a dull moment around these! Since the raspberries are basically thornless I have kept them.  We even get some berries from them that the birds and other critters do not eat haha!

Thank you for coming by and checking out this series of shots from the Bald-faced Hornet eating. I have another series from another day which is going to wait for frankly I forgot which day I took the photographs ha!

Flight of The Bumble Bee

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Flight of The Bumble Bee




Meet one of my visitors! I have shown other photographs gotten of what I call a bumblebee.

This little series of shots taken in June of 2014 are on one of my many Lupine Flowers.



My observation of everything around me began as a child as many peoples had. I just never stopped. Many things I find interesting still today. Insects who visit my garden are some of the things I find interesting.



These days I have time to observe what I like too. Be it a small insect or a large mammal. As I had said before when this species showed up it was aggressive towards me After getting used to my routine , and if it wanted to work here in my garden, we were going to have to get along. After a couple days no more challenging me by flying into my face. Along with this behavior, others who showed up after the first one never showed this behavior to me. I found this interesting. As if in some way communication between the bees had happened without inviting me.



After everyone learned to get along taking photographs of this rather large insect got easier as far as being comfortable around each other.

Round and round the bee would go, doing it's work around the Lupine Flower. Starting at the bottom of the flower blooms and working it's way up until no more peddles were open.

Thank you for stopping by and see my photographs! Trying to show as many of my photographs as I can until the busy time of the year will start up for me, this will be spring, however the way the weather has been lately this might be earlier then I even thought?

Bumble Bee in the High Desert of Oregon

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Bumble Bee in the High Desert of Oregon




Meet this rather large Bumble Bee! I have spoken before of the bee's who spend time with us here at home, this is one pollinator who helps us in our garden. This series of photographs was captured on the soft pink multi peddled hollyhock flowers.





When this species first showed up in 2014, it was fist checking out place out. Was not so nice with trying to intimidate me with checking me out real close. Darting back and forth, just being a pain!! After some time and the others showed up then is when I was allowed these closer shots. I believe the bee's like anything else, gets used to a person. Plus there is no need to fight over anything here, we put in quite a few flowers.







I like all the bee's myself! Curtain times you can hear all the buzzing going on!! Specially when all the Lilacs start to bloom!!



I did try to get shots of "his", face. Sometimes you get what you can get and this bee was not going to allow me to many photographs of "his", face. I figure, "if I cant see you, you cant see me" is being applied?







I think this is a pretty bee myself.....

Below you will find the series of photographs of this Bumble Bee in video format if you would like to see all of them rather quickly. Or you can click on the photograph to see the whole series of still photography one at a time!





Thank you for coming by and checking out my photography I got in my garden! My other insect photography can be found in my insect photo album if you like to check those out.

Sweat Bee and the Wild Strawberry

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Sweat Bee and the Wild Strawberry




Meet the Sweat Bee. Rather pretty in color with the fluorescent green dont you think? The flower the Sweat Bee is feeding on is a wild Strawberry plant that just started growing on it's own. No doubt the seeds coming from the birds?



I dont mean to photographs these Sweat Bee's on yellow flowers, they just seam to like them or being the color they are they catch my eye better on the yellow?

My other post I written up on this species of Sweat Bee is Sweat Bee On A Ozark Sundrop Flower if you want to check it out!

 

I actually forgot all about the wild Strawberry I had growing out there! The wild Strawberry flowered like no bodies business though when no berries were produced and no longer attracting the pollinators I pulled it out as to not have this plant spread all over town and to other peoples gardens. One attribute I quickly noticed about this plant!! The wild strawberry wanted to take over the world and the big farmers I felt did not need this taking over there crops! Like I said I think the birds brought in the seed from who knows where? Some of the migrating birds come from far away!







I do want to thank my son publicly, (I must have thanked him ten times here at home this morning), for helping his mother with technical issues I was having!



Thank you for coming by and checking out this series of Photographs from July of 2014 in my garden here in our part of the High Desert of Oregon!