Honey Bee

Honey Bee at Patuxent Research Refuge on July 15, 2020. Last summer, I spent a bit of time at Patuxent Research Refuge - North Tract photographing hummingbirds and butterflies. On this visit, I found no butterflies and just a few hummingbirds. Due to the pandemic, there are far fewer hummingbird feeders at the contact station at the refuge. I had realized that I was a month early from my shots last year and August would be the month for that. My macro lens is always with me on these trips so I decided to focus on flowers and bugs around the contact station instead.

Many bees were gathered in the butterfly garden nearby. I find bees harder to photograph than birds. The depth of field is so razor thin with a macro lens that even the reasonable fast focusing of the D500 can struggle. Bees are constantly moving so I do shoot at 8 to 10 frames per second for flying bugs/insects.

While I have labeled this as a Honey Bee, my confidence on this ID is not 100%. I read that there are over 20,000 known species of bee in the world. Honey Bee was the best match I could find through commonly named bees in Maryland though Mason Bee was a contender.

Lens - Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM Macro Lens on Nikon D500