Today's walk report: 083015, Best of the bees

Previous reports have included "best of" versions for both hummingbirds and butterflies and it came to mind a short while ago that a "best of the bees" issue was long overdue.

I have spent most of my life having a relationship with bees which was marked by extreme avoidance bordering on fear. As a young child I had a rather traumatic episode in a swimming pool where I was the only one not inclined to submerge when a bee was hovering over the water. Naturally, all of the other (older) kids disturbed the bee upon submerging and I was left to be stung and stung I was. I don't recall if it was that incidence or a latter one but it was determined (perhaps only by my mother) that I was allergic to bees. I got sick and had a fever... apparently.

March forward 50+ years. I found the cure in 2011. I got my 1st DSLR camera and discovered a remarkable level of braveness and confidence photographing bees. Getting my best shot overrode everything else. I will go so far as to say we've developed a friendship of sorts. Shortly thereafter something else happened... I got stung by a bee. Right smack in the center of the most sensitive part of one's palm. This wasn't while tempting fate taking pictures but rather by sticking my hand in some city mulch to facilitate getting it from my vehicle onto a snow shovel.

Here I was, from childhood to adulthood, led to believe I was allergic to bees. An interesting thing to examine, how we are able to put so much faith in childhood beliefs. My initial reaction was a combination of an incredible rush of pain, pulling the stinger, washing my hand with a nearby garden hose and getting inside and by a phone. I honestly didn't know what to expect and using Dr. Google was kinda discouraging. But, basically... nothing happened, nothing beyond a normal reaction anyway. According to WebMD "most people are not allergic to insect stings and may mistake a normal sting reaction for an allergic reaction." 'Nice to finally get this straight, don't always believe what you've been told.

Onto the bees...

Bees on California poppies.

Bee bottoms...

Inside a cape honeysuckle flower

Inside a banksia flower

Spotted Emu Bush

A bearded iris

Excursion into a cactus flower...

Back on the outside

Just looking...

Cape hioneysuckle

Bee on Melaleuca flowers...

Hanging around...

Note the ant on the bottom of the left flowers

Some sort of salvia

Hakea minyma flower

No plant ID

On gilia tricolor

On borage

Callistemon pallidus aka lemon bottlebrush

Lantana

Narrow leaved milkweed

Perezii statice

Back to the emu bush

A couple of bees in borage flowers

Inside an opuntia flower

Drenched by rain, bee rests on ox-eye daisy

Apache plume

No plant Id

Bee blissing on bee's bliss sage

Arroyo lupine

Cosmos bipinnatus

Clarkia unguiculata

Another bee swirling around inside an opuntia flower

 Heading in...

White sage

Blue bee

Heading into Caesalpinia gilliesii

More fun with Caesalpinia gilliesii

Salvia apiana (white sage, bee sage, or sacred sage). Find the ant, win no prize

More cactus flowers

Some type of catmint

Crassula perforata flowers

Grapefruit flower

Another blue bee on gilia tricolor

Another shot on Crassula perforata flowers

Another cactus flower find

Heading out...

Alyogyne huegelii 'White Swan'

Alyogyne huegelii 'White Swan'

The Valley carpenter bee, Xylocopa varipuncta, in brown and the California carpenter bee, Xylocopa californica in black...

Cercis occidentalis, western redbud. Note the honey bee in the background.

Salvia uliginosa

Collinsia Heterophylla, Chinese houses

Palo Verde

Salvia uliginosa

Gulf-Fritillary butterfly (Agraulis vanillae) and a carpenter-bee

Bumblebees, bee genus Bombus...

Maybe Salvia leucophylla

Same salvia