Well if they've been holding it in for 8 months you can't blame them for making it a priority. I thought this was interesting. This years' fresh female vs one at the end of the season last year. Bleached by the sun, balding and frayed wings. It's a tough couple of months for them. Without the face horns you'd think they were different bees.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Look at this for a bee Compare the antennae to the mason bee above. It's not called the Longhorn Bee for nothing. Sadly not in my garden though. I sneaked an hour between jobs today for a walk along my favourite stretch of river and the insect life was absolutely crazy. I had to go back to the car to grab a better camera as my phone wasn't ideal for the job. I only had my old bridge camera that I use for work though so automatic settings and no view finder sadly. There was also a huge hatch of bronzey looking damsel flies that were everywhere drying their wings. I've never seen so many in one place.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
@wild edges If those pics are what you can achieve with "an old bridge camera", what would they have been like with a proper SLR camera with macro lens, I wonder? They are excellent.
That "bronzey looking damsel fly" looks like a (female) Calopteryx splendens.
It's a Panasonic LX3 from 2008. It's got a really nice bright Leica lens that will focus down to a hair's width from the glass but you have to fight with it a bit to get it to focus in the right place.
The bee though is incredibly rare and I'm not sure if I need to report the sighting to someone. Most websites are saying it's only known from a few dozen locations in the UK now. This one was in the wildflower margin of an arable field so I really hope they're not planning to spray it or anything any time soon.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
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https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/long-horned-bee/