I wanted to take advantage of all the overgrown weeds that are blooming at a local park and shoot some of the gigantic thistles. I have been passing by a few times lately, but lack of time or bad weather made me postpone the photo trip.
The time has come, and I was really hoping they were still there. I am not sure if the city hall is letting them grow so wild on purpose because of the No Mow May thingie or if they are just waiting in line to be cut. Either way - the weeds are doing fine, and some were taller than me. I got to the purple mess and saw this beast flying around!
Yay!
Carpenter bee
It was a super nice bonus. Only one bee, but that's ok. I don't think I ever saw a few of them in the same place. They are such a beautiful, big creature, but also so very timid. I could not get too close, as she should just fly away.
Another amazing thing is flying itself. They are fast and have a low buzzing sound. A bit like some drones :)
Black, shiny body with a gorgeous navy blue sheen on their wings. Their wings seem quite unproportional to the body, but that doesn't stop them from being speedy if they have to.
Carpenter bees are solitary, which means they do not build nests together with other bees. Instead, they will carve a tunnel in a wood (thus their name, I guess) and lay their eggs there. And it probably works well, until a hungry woodpecker finds it and eats the larve.
This image should give you an idea of their size:
image source
They take up a up a large part of the flowers. To compare, this is a regular bumblebee on the same type of flower.
And lastly the wild overgrown messa I was after that day:
Shot with Nikon D5500 + Sigma 105mm lens
All photos and text are my own.