Feast

/ Su Leslie
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Making a feast of the garlic chive flowers. Image: Su Leslie 2018

Last autumn, a large clump of garlic chives in my garden flowered prolifically and proved incredibly popular with the neighbourhood bees.

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Bee buffet. Image: Su Leslie 2018

I spent part of one afternoon mesmerised by the sheer number buzzing around the flowers, and trying to capture the scale of the feast with my camera. Photos just don’t do it justice, and I didn’t think to switch to video mode.

Less enjoyable, but no less fascinating, last year I watched a preying mantis make short work of a monarch caterpillar. It really was a bit gruesome, but of course not all of nature’s creatures are as attractive as bees.

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Preying mantis devouring Monarch caterpillar. Image: Su Leslie 2017

Or perhaps vegetarianism is easier to watch.

Posted to the RagTag Daily Prompt | feast

41 thoughts on “Feast”

  4. Excellent macros here Su. Love the bee. Not so much love for the praying mantis – the act not the image!
    I had garlic chives growing in the spring, but they seem to have got submerged by the borage flowers. If they come up again next year I shall have to move them to a more suitable location.

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    • It’s a truly grotesque sight and the shot is pretty gross. But it was revoltingly compelling viewing.

      My garlic chives have been there for a few years, and thrive despite (probably because) of my complete inattention to them. But they aren’t competing with borage. The flowers are amazing to photograph just as the buds are beginning to open.

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    • Thank you Peter. We had something of a caterpillar rescue centre in our garden a couple of summers ago (my partner even built a shelter to protect them) and we spent hours watching their life cycle. I was lucky to be “on hand” for so much time and was able to get lots of photos. But the mantis lunch was thankfully a one-off for me. 🙂

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  15. Vegetarianism is definitely easier to watch, just think of lions devouring an antelope! Or big fat men eating in a steakhouse – lol! 😁
    Yesterday I rescued a bee from being tread on that was taking a break right on the sidewalk. A slip of paper underneath and then up on the next tree. Did the same with another one that got lost in a building where the windows can’t be opened. Both times the bees cooperated perfectly, crawling on the paper and not taking flight. I swear it felt like they knew that I just wanted to help. 😄 xxxxxx

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    • Yay for bee rescue!
      I tend to agree with you about seeing food being consumed. Though of course there are some people who are unwatchable no matter what they are eating. Animals, it’s different. It may be gross but it is totally natural. 🙂 xxxx

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