A couple days ago I blogged about flowering edibles in the garden. It was quite hot when I was taking the pictures which included some shots of the multitude of pollinators that collect around the flowers. I commented on how hard it was to photograph the bumblebees because they would not stay still long enough for me to get a good shot.
Yesterday and today have been very cold. A high of about 66 both days. For the middle of July, it is not normal. I came home from a trip to Minneapolis late yesterday afternoon and noticed bumblebees working the coneflowers by the driveway. They were moving quite slowly, and working the flowers very deliberately. I thought it would be easy to get some pictures. It was. The flowers are well past their sell by date, but they still have excellent color and obviously enough pollen to keep the bumblebees interested.
As I was finishing up shooting, I came upon a dying bee. I had already found a dead one. I don’t know if the cold weather was killing them or if they were just running out of gas after their natural life cycle, but I was able to put the camera right up on the bee without any worry about having it get mad at me.