Where flowers grow bees are sure to follow

I've had some luck recently getting closeups of bees and other insects that are attracted to flowers. As a person who's oblivious to the facts of pollination, botany and horticulture etc.* (see below), I stick to the photo-taking side of things, appreciation of color and the intricate wonders of nature. The symbiotic relationships are as delicate as they are overpowering. What I've found is that you don't go out with the intention of photographing bees and their pollinating co-conspirators. You go where the blooming flowers are and the bees are sure to follow. I shot this one on a smaller sunflower on Garner Road, just south of Ray County Lake. The route I took -- 112th Street from C Highway to St. Cloud Road to 120th Street and then onto Garner is a fertile area for natural beauty and photos. The back roads are my friend! 

     * From Wikipedia, along with spell check and Google one of the three dieties of the digital era: "More commonly, the process of pollination requires pollinators: organisms that carry or move the pollen grains from the anther to the receptive part of the carpel or pistil. This is biotic pollination. The various flower traits (and combinations thereof) that differentially attract one type of pollinator or another are known as pollination syndromes.

     There are roughly 200,000 varieties of animal pollinators in the wild, most of which are insects.^[2] Entomophily, pollination by insects, often occurs on plants that have developed colored petals and a strong scent to attract insects such as, bees, wasps and occasionally ants (Hymenoptera), beetles (Coleoptera), moths and butterflies (Lepidoptera), and flies (Diptera). In zoophily, pollination is performed by vertebrates such as birds and bats, particularly, hummingbirds, sunbirds, spiderhunters, honeyeaters, and fruit bats."

     Finally, leave it to blues to turn the pollination process into sexual innuendo about a back-door man. Muddy Waters doing "I'm a King Bee" live. The opening promo for Washburn University is very brief.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtOy0-Ebn2A&ob=av2e