Nature walk

In the hot humid evening, I took the dogs out for a walk.  The hay field on the corner had been taken down recently and was pretty short.  I walked over by the edge of the alfalfa field.  It is starting to show a few blooms, so it will probably be cut in the next few days.  There were several grasshoppers jumping as I walked by.  But this one, it held firm.  It was in a good spot and it wasn't going to move no matter what.

Grasshopper in Alfalfa field

A little further down the way was a single clover plant.  Have you ever been to a honey specialty area and they have the honey labeled as "clover" honey?  That is usually because bee hives are placed in a close proximity to a field of clover.

Bee checking out clover bloom

I stayed out of the bees way and kept a close eye on it as it crawled around the clover flower.  Unlike the cotton flower that it crawled inside, the bee crawled around the outside of the clover flower sticking it's proboscis (long hairy tongue) into the many flowers that make up the clover.  

Bee in clover

Upside down or upside right didn't seem to make a difference.  Isn't that interesting?  Gravity works so hard to keep us grounded but this bee can hang around with ease.  Evidently the bee found an untouched flower because it grabbed hold with it's mandibles and allowed the rest of the body to dangle as it's proboscis hunted for the pollen.  

Bee dangling and drinking

Then BOOM!  Three large Dobermans came running by and the bee was gone.  I moved away from the area just in case they irritated the bee as they ran past the flower.