2012/08/09

Pollinators Drinking Nectar

Another day hanging around the community garden hoping to see and photograph the hummingbird.  The hummingbirds were nowhere to be found and so I decided to photograph the pollinators instead.  Looking through the photos made me realize how different the feeding methods are for all of these creatures.

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Skipper with its long proboscis.

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Side-view.  Amazing structure.

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A sweat bee pushing its head to reach the nectaries.  Bee families can be categorized into two groups: short- and long-tongued.  However, there are always some exceptions in nature, in that there are some short-tongued bees with longer tongues than long-tongued bees.  Confusing, I know.  The Bees of the World has an excellent chapter on this topic if one is interested.

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A blurry image of a large Yellow-faced Bumblebee (Bombus vosnesenskii - probably a queen) 
enjoying the bee balm flowers.

Unknown Andrena sp.
An unknown (but very cute) Andrenidae bee.

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Another view.

 Unknown Bee
Got this cool shot of this European wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum).  I like its eyes and hairy body.

Then all the sudden, I heard the squeaking sounds of a hummingbird!

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Looking near the bee balms, there it was!

Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus)
Another different method of drinking the nectar.

Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus)

 Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus)
Beautiful!

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Got enough photos?  Can you see two hummingbirds in this image?

Volunteering at the WCH tomorrow afternoon - helping out with presentations regarding amphibian conservation, should be fun.

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