Late summer afternoon...

I took another whack of bee photos yesterday. I particularly like this one:

Honey bee on wild (aka poison) parsnip. You can get a bad reaction from the sap of this plant. I avoid touching it, but I don't seem to react much when it accidentally brushes against me. Nonetheless, I was careful when I wandered into it for bee photos! The roots are edible but you have to be careful digging them up.

My four new beehives are doing incredibly well. I'm taking off 10 honey supers this Saturday. We'll see how much is in there. These aren't all full, but I will be putting some back on after the bees fill up the new brood box I put on each hive. Brood boxes are the "deep" boxes. You can see two at the bottom of each of these hives. It's where the queen lays eggs and where baby bees are born. :)

I just love sitting back here, listening to the bees. So beautiful! I have an old bench near the hives.

Tristan appreciated the break. He is having some minor surgery next week to remove a big growth on his gum, but because he's a senior, it's worrisome to have him put under. But he needs to get the thing off.

And here's Miss Sophie...

She was not looking adoringly at me. Rather, she wanted to eat the honey bee sitting on the purple flower just to the left of her eye! She is terrible for catching and eating bees and wasps. She and Tristan have both done this so many times that they must be completely immune to the venom. They never seem to have any reaction!

And here's a worker bee foraging on white clover.

She's an old gal and will likely succumb soon. You can tell, because her wings have ragged edged and her thorax is not as hairy as a younger bee's would be. The hair wears off as the bees age. Foraging is the last job a bee performs for the hive before death. Often they just drop dead in the fields from exhaustion!

But they do love their clover.

Sipping that nectar to make me some beautiful honey!

And the wild parsnip is pretty tasty too.

And for you butterfly lovers (who isn't?)

A Black Swallowtail. I have seen very few butterflies this summer, and not a single Monarch. It's very distressing. Their numbers are in freefall and scientists are unsure whether or not they can bounce back.  People really need to wake the hell up to what's happening out there. Monarchs and honey bees will die off first, but it won't end there, my friends. :(

And here's a funky little dude!

I don't know what kind of fly he is, but I liked him.

And of course I will give you your duckling fix!

Squeeeeeeeee!