Miner Bee Bug hunt may 3 rd 2016

A trip to Whixall Moss in Shropshire today , its warm and sunny but with quite a lot of clouds which will help with macro shooting.  i am hoping to shoot the miner bees that feed on the dandylion flowers on the canal bank. they are only active when the air temperature is quite warm , when cloud covers the sun they cool down and cant fly which makes them easier to photograph.

A couple of hoverfly shots taken with mpe-65 on 5dsr while walking towards the far end where i know is the best miner bee area.

  Not a clue on id of this one, Empid fly by looks of the head/thorax. a very small one, less than 10mm.

                                                                         A shield bug 

                    At the canal and there are plenty of dandylion flowers , now just need a bit of sun .

Yay!   loads of miners are feeding , as the sun goes behind a cloud this miner obliges and sits on my finger :)      loads of pollen grains on it.

     This is the best section , loads of flowers in the sun with sandy soil that these solitary bees nest in.

There are a few Nomada bee species also ,  took a while to get this 7 frame focus stack.  holding the flower stem between my fingers of left hand while resting the lens on the hand keeps it steady to do an accurate series of frames to focus stack.   which when combined gives a much greater depth of field than 1 single frame can produce.

                                                          a crop from above image.

                                               Another species of miner bee .  

                                      6 frames focus stacked at f7  mpe-65 on 5dsr

                               What a great morning shooting these tiny Bees it has been .