shiny bumblebee bum-bum

 I love how you can see the dahlia flower reflected in this bee's hiney.

These bees didn't seem to be sharing very willingly...

The bumblebee is SO much bigger, it sounds like a C3 plane relative to the honeybee.

Such a shiny, profoundly-black animal.

Finally caught it on film.

Been pursuing this creature (or something like it) all summer. =)

 Thank you, providence!

And, thank you dahlias, for drawing so many fascinating creatures nigh.

=) 

xoxobb

plant that blooms so hard you can HEAR it, and a tiny little beauty

 Tiny Beauty

More red stemmed filaree (Erodium cicutarium),

also known as stork's bill because of what their seeds look like which,

incidentally, can feel like STEEL stabbing through your sneakers.

It's a flat little plant, blooming this month, but I never knew

until I stared rudely at it w/a macro

how amazing its architecture is. Stunner.

(seeing individual pollen grains makes me swoon)

Blue anthers? Hot pink stigma? What?!? 

Little honey bee excitedly floating from flower to flower in February.

I'm curious why the bee is sipping where she's sipping.

Where does the lovely nectar come out?

Is it there so that the plant can brush against the bee's tummy

to pick up and deposit pollen?

These are my questions.

Hark, I Hear Spring!

Practically the only other thing blooming right now

is the Mariposa manzanita (Arctostaphylos viscida ssp. mariposa)

(with HUGE thanks to randomtruth for correcting my mis-ID!):

However, this plant blooms in SUCH GREAT abundance, you can HEAR it.

Honest.

You'll be outside in the garden, kicking around, pretending to work, when:

Hark! What is that low buzzing coming from the ENTIRE property?

That's when you realize there are LEGIONS of bees ALL OVER

these tree/shrubs, and giant bumblebees seem to be setting up territories

to guard their particular patch o' manzanita blooms.

Pretty smart to bloom early when the bees are THIRSTY for fresh nectar

and hardly anything else is blooming, so you get LOTS of attention.

And I didn't see this bug until I uploaded the photos:

And only took one photo of this clump, so that bug WINS!

No idea what it is.

Besides GREAT at being overlooked.

Just like the red stemmed filaree.

I love "discovering" amazing things that have been there all along.

Nature: the more you look, the more you walk around, gobsmacked.

Love it.

xoxoxo

bb

Colour me crabby

Favorite "color" shot from this year:

crab spider on a zinnia

Assignment for day 17 of the 30 Day Photo Challenge is "colours,"

the spelling of which belies a Canadian or UK origin.

However, I'm feeling kinda wooky,

so wandering around w/camera may not happen today.

Y'all may have to settle for this.

xoxobb

late entry--today's sky DEMANDED my attention...

Tonight's sunset.

Okay, okay, I'll take your picture & put you in the blog.

My second entry for the "Sky" theme.

Poor little sky.

Just wants a little attention.

Don't we all?

=) 

xoxobb 

Friday foto fling

B1 Bomber

This shot CRACKS me up. Photo phail. =)

lighting, lighting, lighting.

 dainty lady

 Katydid. I swear it.

Charming hoverfly (of some sort, I presume).

xoxoxobb

I can't resist bugs (+ herps + quiz answer & winners + bb gets a name)

It is not my GOAL to constantly take and share photos of bugs.

crab spider on zinnia

Esp. bugs on flowers.

crab spider crop

tiny flight toward cleome

But, it just keeps happening...

tidy flyer

a  honey of a tummy

another TINY crab spider, on cleome bud

itty-bitty crab spider Eric Eaton (@bugeric) ID'd for me

bee dip

 Of course, there are other things in the garden that I like...

Sierran treefrog (Pseudacris sierra)

and wandering around the property,

young, beautiful Pacific gopher snake (Pituophis catenifer catenifer)

morning, noon, and night...

one of our local black-tailed jackrabbits (Lepus californicus)

but, I keep coming back to the bugs.

Guess we'll all just have to suffer.

[By the way: if you wanna see photos sooner or more frequently, you could follow me on twitter @biobabbler,  or if you want photos & less blather, check out my tumblr account xoxo]

****************

Quiz Winners!!!

Sue and Diana Studer NAILED it.
You two have my never ending respect. =)

WOO-HOO!!!

The word was: haconechloa.

Pronounced hawk-in-uh-cloh-uh,
rhymes with walk in the snow, duh.

It's a deciduous perennial grass used in gardening/landscaping, native to Japan.

Photo by and (c)2006 Derek Ramsey. Location credit to the Chanticleer Garden.
Obtained via Wikipedia.

I'd heard it listening to the Good Enough Gardening podcast.
I listen to them over & over;
they keep me company as I putter in the garden
or do chores in the house.

Apparently, that word got in, and required explanation.


So, enough about the GENIUSES who got it right:
now, for the GENIUSES who guessed wildly.

I'd HEARTILY encourage you to read the
MYRIAD, super entertaining guesses you creative people came up with.

*happy sigh*

Love when y'all go there. =) You rock.


Thanks EVERYONE for participating
and just generally being your cool selves.

xoxobb

p.s. Navel Gazing: I now call myself Samantha Biobabbler on twitter, 'cause why not have SOME real name, right? I'm not really anonymous for any particular reason, so, there ya go.