In Hot Water

Dragonfly in hot spring in Yellowstone National Park

Organic Clouds

Professional photographers will tell you to only display your best work, your most compelling images. I suppose that in marketing speak that would be called 'building a brand'.

For today's Skywatch Friday, I break that rule. This image is not good. There is no real subject, its chaotic and its rather boring.

That is, perhaps, until it is explained. Call this a documentary photo rather than an art photo.

What you see here are clouds of small flying bugs back lit by the westering sun. We saw these bugs on an evening drive through Waterton Park in Canada. This cloud went for miles! I can truthfully say that I've never seen anything like this.

Be sure to visit Skywatch Friday for less buggy skies.

Pollinators

I'm sure many of you have heard that the North American population of Honey Bees are in decline. These honey bees are not native to North America, but rather, were introduced by European colonist in the 1600s. Besides producing honey, the honey bee is also important as a pollinator for many food crops. I have heard that that the loss of the honey bee bodes ill for food production in North America.

However, there are also over 3500 species of native bees (also known as pollen or solitary bees). These bees don't produce collectible amounts of honey but are extremely important pollinators.

I believe that is photo is of a honey bee, but I'm not positive.

For futher reading, take a look at Alternative Pollinators. Included in this site are some strategies to attract these species to your garden (don't worry, native bees are said to be less aggressive than honey bees)



Be sure to visit Macro Mondays for more macro photos.

Busy as a Bee

Our next stop in the vacation was the Denver Botanic Gardens. This is one of my favorite Botanical Gardens. Its big, beautiful, and there are a lot of little hidden corners to explore.

Currently, they have a bunch of statues of dinosaurs running around. It was fun to watch the kids hunt for them, and then find them.

Monochrome Grasshopper

In this picture, you can see how well the grasshopper is chamoflaged. This gives this photo a naturally monochromatic look.