I find it is always difficult to photograph a bee, collecting nectar from flowers.  They just don’t stay still long enough for me to get close enough and focus.   Fortunately last night I had a macro lens ready on the camera with plans to take some close-up pictures of the orchids which have appeared all over the Hatton field this year, when this little lady (at least I thinks she’s a lady) settled on the white clover beside me.  She was rather splendid in her orange waistcoat.  I tried several pictures, but only one was in focus.

I read a book a couple of years ago about bumblebees which opened my eyes to all the different species and their lifestyles. (A sting in the Tale by Dave Goulson)  I wondered what sort of a bee this was. Looking it up, it would seem that we had a Tree Bumblebee (bombus hypnorum) visiting the Hatton field.   I wish I had read the article before I took the pictures,  because the tree bumblebee is supposed to have a white tail.  A close examination of all my pictures, however, including the fuzzy ones revealed that she was hiding her tail from me.   The other thing I discovered was that this species of bee was first recorded in the UK in 2001 and they are not supposed to be present in Scotland.   Was it or wasn’t it a tree bumblebee?

Lily and Poppy were not that interested.  They were to busy exploring the long grass.   I did manage to take a  few orchid pictures and of some of the magnificent cow parsley which is at its best just now beside the buttercups in the field, not to mention the purple grass.