52 Photos: Busy as a Bee

Our flowering trees; crabapple, purple plum and bradford pear

We've had an incredible week of weather here in Rochester resulting in a rapid blooming of the flowering trees that make up our landscaping. We have three such trees that normally bloom over a 3-4 week period and they are usually done blooming by now. The first to bloom is our purple plum tree and it historically blooms in early to mid April. It was at about peak last weekend when we were at Highland Park.

Crabapple tree on Saturday morning.

In a normal year the bradford pear tree will bloom about a week to 10 days after the purple plum. With the extremely warm and sunny weather we had this week the bradford pear was close to peak by mid-week and was barely showing any buds last weekend. On Wednesday evening, when I noticed the bradford pear in full bloom, I took a look at the crabapple tree and it was full of buds but none were open. By Friday evening and Saturday morning the buds on the crabapple were more than 50% in bloom and this morning it is at full bloom. So a 3-4 week blooming period for our flowering trees compressed to one gorgeous week in 2015.

Bee in flight while collecting pollen

When the crabapple tree is in bloom it attracts a large number of bees. I have photographed them in the past but never with a high quality macro lens like the 105 mm lens I obtained last fall (see macro photography post). After noticing the annual activity around the tree I removed my brand new 24-70mm f2.8 zoom lens and attached the macro lens in the hopes of capturing the busy insects in action.

Another bee busy at work.

I selected this weeks picture from among the many I took for both the positioning of the bee and the fact that it was sunlit and not in deep shadow. I've including a couple of other interesting bee shots as well for you to enjoy.

Bees aren't the only ones enjoying the tree

While scanning the tree for busy bees that were poised to be easily photographed, I was reminded that bees were not the only flying creatures that enjoy nature's flowering plants. I spent a few minutes following this butterfly around the tree trying to get a good angle of it while it was taking advantage of the blossoming tree.

This week also brought a new piece of equipment to my camera bag. I finally stopped thinking about and finally purchased Nikon's flagship standard zoom, the AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED lens. My photography friends, particularly those that shoot with Nikon cameras, will appreciate this news. The non-closeup shots in this week's post were taken with the new lens, which was obtained on Friday evening from Rowe Photo here in Rochester. I expect to feature the lens more in future postings. Until then enjoy these images of the long awaited springtime conditions that this past week has provided.