Just a quick sip

I think this is a California carpenter bee. It is almost 1 inch long and it never spends more than a few seconds at any flower. No chance getting close to it with the macro lens, so I got the 70-200 out for a little exercise today

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Wonderful shots, great capture.

Thanks, glad you like them

i like them
carpenter bees are tough to shoot
always moving zig zag

good captures Bea,love that yellow.

Great shots.

One day while I was working in the garden, a carpenter bee landed on the handle of my hoe. I looked at it for a moment or two before I realized what it was doing. In a matter of seconds it had made a small hole in my handle! Dirty bugger. I've had them tunneling through the 2x4s of my fence. They're pretty to look at on yellow backgrounds, sure, but when you're leaning against the fence and you hear *crunch* *crunch* *crunch* *bzzzzzzzzzzzzz*! It can be a little discomfiting.

they should be called "you'll need a carpenter bees". I had no idea!! Do they eat through the wood?

Glad you like the pics though

Thanks, Dimitri! I can't remember what the vine is called, but I like the flowers too

Zig Zag is right! I think I finally found their hangout, they seem to like the yellow flowers in my sideyard and stay relatively long there. I just came back inside from taking a few more pics of them, hopefully I got some keepers.

dazzlebea wrote:
they should be called "you'll need a carpenter bees". I had no idea!! Do they eat through the wood?

Glad you like the pics though

They do a great job of tunneling through wood.

Next story: The Audubon Zoo in New Orleans once had a beautiful wisteria covered awning. I was there with my father once and we noticed a woodpecker hammering away at the awning. It was listening to the buzzing inside of the wood and drilling where he heard the buzzing. It'd cock it's head, peck a bit, listen some more, and drill. My father and I couldn't figure out what it was doing until we saw it pulling large larvae out of the 2x6s that made up the awning. That's when I told my father about the carpenter bees at my apartment.

Not only were the carpenter bees tunneling through the wood, but the wood peckers were drilling holes to get at their young!

Quite a destructive combination.