THUNDER THIGHS!

Check out the creamy-colored bumps on the sides of this bumblebee. Those are pollen filled sacks on her hind legs where she is storing the pollen she is collecting. The pollen is an off-white color because she is collecting from the white and pink flowers on a spirea bush. (I previously wrote about this pollen collecting/storage phenomenon on June 15. That bee had bright orange thighs because she was working on a different color flower. 'She' because the males don't have this storage capacity on their legs.) Since they can carry up to 90% of their weight, I figure this bumblebee must have been fairly close to her limit as she was crawling from flower to flower rather than flying.

Due to Blip, I'm not only learning about photography, but also acquiring some fascinating information about insects, etc. It's also interesting to see the intricate detail of the spirea flowers - something else I'd never completely appreciated.