nature
Macro Insects: Bees and Butterflies
This is the first part of my insect photographs from this summer. I have stalked a lot of bees and butterflies, bees being smaller and much harder to photograph. I loved seeing all the different types of bumble bees in my garden this summer. Big and small, with every colour variation you can think of. They are very hardy creatures and I still see them flying around collecting pollen, even in the rain.
A few months ago we finally decided to buy a beehive. We have been talking about it too long. I had a lot of fun assembling it. Once we found a suitable location, we attached a lure inside and waited. Spoiler alert: we did not catch a swarm of honey bees. We missed our chance as a swarm flew over our house just two weeks before we got the beehive. Now we have to wait until the end of winter to get these incredible honey making insects.
It is not like our new bee house went completely unnoticed though. There were bees coming and going for weeks, investigating this new structure. It was so interesting to watch them. From my deductions we had about 4 drones exploring at a time. As the end of August came, the beehive became a home for earwigs. I had to evict them and store the beehive away for next year. I hope they enjoyed their temporary accommodation.
The Buddleia bush has been a magnet for butterflies throughout August and into September. There were at least a dozen fluttering insects around it at any given time. I mostly noticed Red Admiral and Peacock butterflies. If you approach them slowly, you can get rather close to get a macro shot. In some of the photos you can see the wear and tear on their fragile wings.
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