Stingers on their way...

Disclaimer - don't look at the pictures if you are afraid to be stung ;)

Walking around and looking at flowers is a great pleasure and you also always can find something else. Actually, someone else.

Bees...

They are everywhere and you can always see one bee or a big company of them hovering around and targeting the flowers. It is really interesting to watch them, to learn about their habits and varieties. And once you start looking for more details, you quickly figure out how different they are (honestly... I had no idea that there are more than one kind of them). Anyway, learning about these stingers I was amazed by the diversity - brown and black, skinny and fat, small and big... so many different creatures are flying around and enjoying honeydew.

And also I was surprised to see how they deal with different flowers. Their behavior is not the same around different flowers. For example, feeding on White prickly poppies they like to have a company. Two, three, four of them can easily work together on the same flower. And they are literally bathing in the flower - hugging the center piece, diving in, crawling around... It looks like magic dance, actually.

And as I said, sharing this with others. And you can always find them around these white flowers. And they can spend a lot of time on one flower. Minutes!

Bees behave completely differently around Russian Sage.

No sharing! Once someone is approaching the flower where the bee is feeding already and the intruder is immediately chased away. A lucky bee will find another attractive bud and attack it. It impetuous approaches the flower, dives in, stays for a second and flies off just to find another one. In - out, in - out, one second in the flower, two seconds in the air and another second in the flower. 

Nothing close to how they spend their time on poppies. But... there are always plenty of bees hovering around Russian Sage bush.

Walking around the and keep your eyes opened is a best way to learn more about different varieties and their habits. It also a great opportunity to capture them when they are working hard to collect some honeydew.

Despite I never was careful around the bees during the photo sessions and never tried to give them a space, I was never stung and think the rumors that the bees are aggressive and protective are not really true ;)