Busy as a bee

There was a buzzing in his ears when he woke up at dawn for the mission briefing and flight plan. Same as yesterday and the day before and the day before. You have to strike when the iron is hot or at least when the flowers are in bloom. The instructions were simple enough. He would only need to visit about a thousand flowers to collect the seventy milligrams of sugary nectar for a full load. Then it was back to the hive for unloading and then back out again. Making honey is hard work. Maybe tomorrow it will rain.

(Photo credit: “Anthophora dufourii Lepeletier, 1841 (Det. Achik Dorchin 2012), male collecting nectar and pollinating Salvia hierosolymitana, Mount Carmel, Israel, April 10, 2012. Many Salvia species deploy a staminal lever mechanism: when a bee probes the flower for nectar, the stamens are lowered to deposit pollen on the bee’s back. Note that the front leg of the bee is amputated.” Selected as Picture of the Day, Wikimedia Commons on August 7, 2012)