This little guy , a Common Carder Bee, was so engrossed in collecting nectar, he was oblivious to my zoom lens. It’s hard to get bees facing you for photos. They spot you and always seem to turn their bottoms to you. Hard to focus on them too,  but fun trying.

I used to be slightly nervous of bees when I was young, but then again they were huge bumble bees back in the 1970’s and the grass was so full on them, buzzing around the clover on our sun baked heat waved lawns, you were scared to tread on them.

Then they started to disappear.  So it is with  great delight I now sit and watch bees busy doing their tough little job collecting nectar all day, as we now realise without our help, they may disappear altogether.

Wandering along the banks of the River Thames a while back, near Woolwich, I stopped to take photos of a few wild shrubs and a group of little pollinators busy systematically searching for nectar, occasionally bumping into each other as they shuffled over flower heads, when this rather large bee appeared.  Not really doing much, just sitting staring into space and looking rather majestic. It turned out to be a very rare Short Haired Bumble Bee that had been extinct and was only reintroduced to England a year ago.  Excited I contacted Dave Goulson writer of “Sting In The Tale” and he confirmed that she was that bumble bee. Happy day and so pleased to have got a non bottom shot too.