The Birds and the Bees - Literally!

Today was such a beautiful day after all the rain we've had recently. Yesterday we had noticed some larger birds near the bird feeder and I took some pictures of them. They were called Golden-crested Sparrows. They're bigger than regular Sparrows. Of course, while I was looking out the window, an Oriole flew into the Bottle Brush bush, but I couldn't get the camera out fast enough! I took lots of photos of the Golden-crested Sparrow and this is the one I like best.

As I mentioned before, today was such a beautiful day that I asked John to bring the grill out onto the patio. As I was wiping the grill down I could hear a very distinct hum of insects. As I walked into the back yard, I noticed the sound seemed to be coming from the goat yard. As I neared the gate, the hum was quite loud and I looked up and saw the swarm of bees!

I quickly ran back into the house to tell John - (of course, I used as few words as possible so as to communicate in the most efficient manner!) and I also ran to put on more protective clothing. John, being the protector that he is (and I appreciate him for it) told me to stay in the house with the dog while he investigated. He came back to tell me there was a football sized hive of bees. I just couldn't stay away! I just had to get some pictures.

John told me to be very careful and to walk up the back steps. We were so cautious, but I had the 70-300 mm lens and we didn't have to get very close.

There were so many bees! The swarm was about the size of a basketball.

Later in the evening I went outside to get more pictures because the light was better (or worse!) and took a photo with the 18-55 mm lens just so I could get a picture of the size of the entire swarm. It was about the size of a heart shaped mylar balloon.

Oddly, as I was looking through the photos I noticed my camera caught the bee-hind of a bee flying into the swarm.

I've posted all these pictures to my Facebook page and John told me to tag the bee's behind (get-it?). That made me laugh so much.

Here's another good photo of the bees.

It was quite an amazing day.

After posting the pictures, my sister-in-law, Melanie told me there were some Bee Society members at the Gardens where she works. They had a website that listed volunteer beekeepers that will come to get your swarm of bees. They're coming tomorrow morning, early, to pick them up. More photos to follow!