On Target

I'm finding the bees buzzing on the wild blackberry bushes just over the backyard fence irresistible this summer. We've never had so many blossoms before, and tiny berries are already beginning to take shape.

I've never played computer games, but I realized today that trying to track a single bee through the zoom lens on my camera, which apparently offers the choice of either everything in focus or one tiny portion in focus, bears some resemblance to the qualities needed for computer games---a steady hand/finger, quick refocusing on the target, and total concentration on the subject.

I followed this bumblebee through several minutes of her morning rounds, which included not only having her tongue at the ready for tasting and gathering, as in today's photo, but something I'd not seen before. At one point, she landed on a large blackberry leaf, and just "sat" there for a few minutes, as if she were very tired. Next she began grooming herself, during which at one point she was balancing on only two legs, her front ones (forelegs), with her middle and rear legs off the leaf. Her head was touching the leaf, and to me, she looked as if she were doing the downward-facing dog pose familiar to yoga practitioners. I've never seen a bee do that before!

A bit more rest followed, and then she whizzed off at full speed, as seen in the extra photo, to gather more nectar and pollen. I'll make an effort to emulate her example tomorrow by taking some short breaks during the day, rather than soldiering on without resting, and doing a few yoga poses as part of those breaks!