This summer I had the opportunity to travel with my family to Alaska over the July 4th week. I admit, while traveling, I am often bad at taking photos. I don’t usually think of stopping to take a photo of what I’m doing, as I tend to focus on the doing. However – let it not be said that I cannot take photos of my travels.
Or at least the bees I see there.
I have many photos of bumblebees I saw while visiting the town of Sitka. I was also lucky in that the National Parks Service building in Sitka had a bumblebees of Alaska field guide, so I had a lot of fun trying to ID some of these.
On this plant I found several bumblebees with this bright orange, but naturally found that they were too focused on foraging to hold still for photos of identifying features.
Based on this side photo I am tempted to call this a Yellow headed or a black tail bumblebee.
Though THIS lady clearly has a black stripe between the yellow and orange tergal segments. I don’t know if we’re in an area cool enough to get polar bumblebees, so my guess would be a Frigid bumble bee.
On this later plant I had some luck with my action shots, though no shots good enough to identify with my experience.
And then this little friend (a Yellow head bumble bee?) was hanging onto a leaf, but when I moved the leaf to get it in focus she decided that my hand would be a decent perch as well.
I did also get a few photos of the mountains and my family, so it wasn’t all bee photos on my phone. Just 95% of the photos I took.
Special thanks to my mom for capturing the experience of going on walks with me. I had fun, and she seemed amused too.