Carpenter Bees on Clary Sage A shot from our garden. We haven't seen any hummingbird moths this year on the sage, but the carpenter bees are around. Xylocopa violacea, the violet variety that is common in Europe. Technical: I'll admit that this is a montage - that's only one bee - on approach and on the flower. But the shot looks a tad 'artificial' to me. The background is the hard plastic wall of raised beds about two metres away, so that can't be a shadow upper left. Maybe a different background would help.
Eye to Eye A Ruddy Darter watching me yesterday. In the Lobau portion of the Danube Wetlands National Park. Thanks for ranking yesterday's shot of the evening sky among the top ten POTD.
