We were out banding birds at Carpenter Nature Center this morning (more on that later) and it has gotten more beautiful than it was two weeks ago. The morning started cloudy but soon cleared to bright blue with white puffy clouds.

The blue was so good, that a young eastern bluebird still molting into it's adult plumage was able to borrow some color for the mean time.

I tried to find ways to tie in the white asters to connect with the puffy clouds when a honey bee flew into the shot with heavy pollen baskets. I became obsessed with trying to get a bee with sky in the background.

I went from goldenrod to goldenrod trying to get the perfect shot of bee, flower, sky, and pollen basket. Every time I would get my camera in perfect position for a macro shot, the bee would fly away, as if suddenly shy, and heading for goldenrod further back. Finally, one bee had enough of me, flew up a few inches, shook back and forth and flew straight for my head. The buzzing stopped as soon as she disappeared over the top of my head. It was at this point that the beekeeper inside me began to question the wisdom of pestering foraging bees, after all those are the ones more likely to sting you when irritated. I didn't feel any crawling through my hair and hoped the bee moved on.

I was surrounded by goldenrod and surrounded by bees. I slowly made my way back to the trail and managed to get the perfect shot of a bee on the goldenrod (though sans pollen basket) with sky, sumac, purple aster, dogwood and more goldenrod behind her. Once again, I say Carpenter Nature Center is at its peak beauty this time a year and SO worth a trip.