Summertime and the living is busy. This is not as tranquil a scene as it looks. This bee and a friend were sampling the nectar on these flowers, working steadily through the bouquet (this is at Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge in New Orleans East) when a would be claim hopper buzzed in.Our antagonist thought that he would have the bouquet to himself and buzzed around the other two trying to scare them away from what he now consider his nectar neighborhood. I had to switch lenses to even have a hope for a shot, but the buzzing fight continued.
I started shooting off rapid fire -- my only hope at catching a shot with this buzzing battle going on as our protagonist here just tried to get some nurturing nectar. I never did get a shot of our claim hopper -- he eventually flew off. I think he was probably a bumble bee and our floral friend above and his petal partner seem to be carpenter bees.
--steve buser
