When I was photographing bees on Monday at Green Spring Gardens, I had no idea that it was the start of Pollinator Week (22-28 June 2020), “an international celebration of the valuable ecosystem services provided by bees, birds, butterflies, bats and beetles,” according to the pollinator.org website. All I knew was that I love bees and enjoy trying to photograph them.
I was reminded of this week’s celebration yesterday in an e-mail from Benjamin, a knowledgeable budding naturalist who is almost certainly the youngest reader of my blog, and his grandmother Ellen (Gem). The two of them were busily making special honey treats to celebrate the week.
A honeybee came buzzing by me as I was attempting to photograph a poppy on Monday. Although the poppy was quite beautiful, I quickly abandoned it and decided that it was more fun to focus on the bee. The bee seemed to have been quite successful in gathering pollen and, as you can see in the first two photos, one of its pollen sacs seemed to be filled to its maximum capacity.
The final photo shows a honeybee at work in a Stokes’ Aster flower (Stokesia laevis) that I spotted in another part of the gardens. If you double-click on the image, you will see little white grains of pollen covering different many parts of the bee’s body.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Great images Mike! Enjoyed seeing them!
Namaste, Mr. Mike! It’s me, Benjamin! I am so happy that I helped you to remember about Pollinator Week. Cause pollinators are so important and peoples must take better care of them if they want to keep eating good foods. These are super cool photos of bees busy at work. I make them two times bigger and I can see the pollen sacs really close. You know what, I like the last photo the best, cause the pollen is all over the bee and that is awesome. I can see the wings in this one too cause this bee isn’t flying like the bee in the other photos. Thank you, Mr. Mike!!
We can all use reminders, Benjamin. Thanks. Yes, pollinators are super important. I would like to have included a shot of a hummingbird, but I have not been able to photograph one yet this year. Thanks for providing your feedback on my photos–I always welcome your views. The final photo is by far the sharpest and has the best details, something that I know that you like. Take care, Benjamin.
Great photos! We kept bees years ago. Was fun and interesting!
Blue Rock Horses Frederick County, Virginia bluerockhorses.com
This is a great way to celebrate, Mike.
Wonderful images of these industrious little fellows.
Fantastic details especially in the last image. It is covered with pollen! Nice, Mike!
Thanks, Chris. I was fortunate that the in the last image had landed, because it is tough to capture that much detail on a moving subject.
And I thought a big Heron was hard 😯😯.
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I just love that final image. What kind of flower is that?
Nice work, Mike. Yes, your third one is special with all the great pollenated detail, but I especially like the first two, with the bee in flight with its bulging saddlebags.
Thanks for your comments, Gary. You and I often think alike, it seems, and share the same views on those three bee photos. From a technical perspective, the sharp, detailed photo with all of the pollen is superior, but I tend to like best my shots that are a bit “artsy” and different. Catching the bee in the air makes those photos inherently more interesting to me and I am happy with the way that the out-of-focus poppy in the background helps to give a sense of place to the bee, so that it does not appear to be merely hanging in the air.