SOLITARY BEES THIS SPRING

I only started noticing solitary bees in the recent 2-3 years period in my own garden. I knew about them from documentaries about these pollinators of orchids in Costa Rica and later  from The Secrets of Nature Youtube video about them springing to life with the thawing of winter snow in Europe.

There are an astounding 22,000 species of solitary bees around the world, some of which are specialists with very unique and quirky traits. Some exist in particular niche that doesn't exist anywhere else pollinators for a specific plants or flower of particular color and species.

The closest I came to these intriguing creatures are the ones in my garden frequenting the few flowering trees we have every spingtime. I starting capturing videos of them starting 2019 but this year I've managed to take notice of the flowering period and started taking these images.

So far I think I can confirm three species in our garden to the best of my knowledge, there are definitely more but it's a start. Photohraphing them is not exactly easy but I tried the best I can with the following gear :

-Tamron 180/3.5 Macro with 14mm extension tube
-Canon EF300/2.8 wit 14mm extension tube
-Canon EF400/4.0 with 1mm extension tube.

The species in the garden so far as I can tell:

Tree Bumblebee - Bombus hypnorum
White tailed Bumblebee - Bombus lucorum
Red tailed Bumblebee - Bombus lapidarus

I should get some additional literature to learn more about these critters for sure.

A great website for solitary bees id : UK Bumblebee Species Guide

Solitary Bees

Widefield Lens for Astro ASKAR ACL 200/4

 I decided to grab the Askar ACL 200 f4 from Teleskop.de as part of my snail's pace building of my imaging train with digital DSLR namely Canon 5D, 6D and Sony A7S. 

It's been a long time in the making : Skywatcher's EQM 35 2 years ago, Altair Starwave Ascent 70 a year ago and the ACL 200/4 this year. Slowly but surely I'm starting to better understand other required gear as well as the bits and pieces that go together in the imaging train. The fact that I'm a chronic procrastinator doesn't help. I haven't even plug in the EQM35 once since purchase!

The aim is not really the end product but the journey so the excuse goes. The end game is hopefully an imaging train that would realise my dream of imaging the night sky with the limited resources available to me, I do have a tonne of other hobbies, astro is onely one of many!

1st test shot : 20 star shots, 20 darks, 20 bias. Exposure 1sec Iso6400

Outstanding in the train are : filters, adapters, guiding scope, guiding camera. I'm still learning about these. The Ascent 72 has helped a lot in my understanding of the what's required for proper imaging especially on the gear side. It's the cheapst decent refractor I was willing to spend money on possibly the lightest at 2kg for the focal length in question. The Askar ACL200 is clearly a step up is cost but wider field.

 

Though it's a longtime in the making, one day hopefully I'll just walkout to the verandah one of these dark nights and start imaging, and that's just the beginning of the journey into the heavens.

Could this be the ultimate end?

Daffodils swaying in the sun

 

New vs Old Shophouses by Stavanger harbour

It's been awhile since I walked about town. While waiting for wifey to sort out her new pair of glasses I roamed around about town with my PnS Panasonic LX100. A lot of reconstruction has happened the past year it seems, old wooden typical "marine" shophouses apartment were replaced with something new and eyecatching.

Old wooden heritage structures from the days of old.

New glass, steel and shale/baked clay of new.