Imogen's photos with the keyword: nature

Early 20th Century mobile bee hives, Weimar Bee Museum, Germany. Beekeepers have a long history of supplying bees to farmers or agriculturists to pollinate crops. These colourful bee hive boxes are conveyed on this wagon and rented out for a period of a few weeks. The brightly coloured hives can easily be seen and located in a field so the beekeeper can retrieve them easily when the bees have done their pollinating job. In the present time, bees are showing signs of stress due to being overworked. Symptoms of stress on the bees include dieback of colonies, diseases, and susceptibility to Varoa mite parasite. Pesticides used on agricultural crops is also to blame for bee dieback. An alarming decline in honey bee (Apis Mellifera) populations worldwide will mean problems with crop production for human consumption. Interestingly the USA has no native honey bees so bees are imported mainly from Europe to pollinate American crops.

Wishing everyone a peaceful and happy Christmas and holiday season. Picture taken in Erfurt, Germany on our recent trip. It was summer when this was taken but I thought it suited the Christmas spirit.

Successful pollination by most probably the horde of Bees seen on this poppy patch. There is a beauty to poppy seedpods I find intriguing.

Blue Banded native bee lands on lavender flower. Its large mouthparts can be clearly seen siphoning from the flower. This bee hovers very often while it gathers nectar and is thus a good "buzz pollinator" for plants like tomatoes which are wind pollinated normally. Insects like this bee that buzz near a plant while feeding will facilitate pollination.

Almost an alien world, the honeycomb leaves of a beehive await occupation and industry.

Blue banded bee, Amegilla, a native bee of Australia collecting nectar from a Salvia flower. The bee has learnt that it is easier to get to the pollen by punching a hole through the base of the flower rather than fighting its way up the funnel of the flower. Sadly it means the flower misses out on having its pollen dispersed by the bee.

Australian native bee, Amegilla or Blue Banded Bee flying towards Salvia Uliginosa. This true blue Salvia lures insects like a magnet, including most bees.

A Megachile species Bee, resting on a leaf between foraging, or perhaps about to cut a piece of leaf out of this plant. Megachile is a solitary bee living alone in a hole in the ground or crevice in a tree. They do not form hive colonies nor store honey. Also called Leafcutter Bees as they cut neat round pieces out of plant leaves which they use as construction material in their nest. They are useful pollinators of alfalfa and other crops having been introduced to North America and Australia for this purpose.

Honeybee, clambering around in search of nectar in gaura flower.

A honeybee, apis mellifera, enjoying the profusion of flowers in Summer.

Australian native bee, Amegilla or Blue Banded Bee coming in to land on Salvia inflorescence. This bright blue flower is the most attractive to native bees. For some reason this salvia has grown twice as high this summer standing over two metres tall - the bees love it as it is in their direct line of flight.

Two bees in Gallica Rose. Strolling through the garden at dusk I saw these two bees who were motionless and appeared to be resting or sleeping. Bees usually return to the hive each afternoon after their daily work is done. It is lovely to imagine these two bees spent the night in this glorious perfumed rose.

Dark and light bark Australian trees in conservation forest area, Sydney.

Australian tree Angophora Costata or Sydney Red Gum. The twisted or contorted branches are a feature of this tree when it grows in poor or thin soils (usual in Australia). Each year in Spring the bark peels off to reveal new pink bark underneath (see inset for bark texture and colour). Many Australian tree species shed their bark regularly which forms dense forest litter providing fuel for bush fires.

Apis Mellifera (honey bee). This lovely blue salvia plant has attracted just about every bee species around our area. Native bees love it as do honey bees like the one here. Bees are an integral part of the life cycle of flowers and my pictures try to show this. To me, plants have an exuberance equal to that of insects and other animals. When I look at nature through my lens like here, the bee is as much part of the tapestry as the plant. I appreciate macro work by other photographers who show a bee or insect close-up and in (relative) isolation, but prefer to show a wider view of nature myself.