It has been a very changeable morning with the light, having to keep altering the camera settings as the sun ducked in out of the clouds like it was playing some kind of celestial hide-and-seek, but at least it hasn’t rained yet. I went on one of my walks through the local woodland, mainly looking for one of my very favourite spring wild flowers, the Lesser Celandine (Ranunculus ficaria). As I enjoyed the yellow splendour of early spring I happened upon this extraordinary little fellas, who was drinking from this sweet flower cup.
One may be forgiven for thinking this is a bee, or even a hoverfly, but it is in fact a fly called, rather confusingly, a Bee Fly (Bombylius major). It mimics a bee as a defence mechanism, and it sure fooled me at first glance! One cannot help but take notice of the almost needle-like proboscis which, in the image above, can be seen sprinkled in fine pollen as it probes the centre of the flower.
I observed it for a short while as it hovered from flower to flower, taking a sip here and there, before I lost sight of it.
To learn more about this interesting fly please visit my previous blog “To Be Or Not To Be A Bee But a Fly”.
Nature Journeys 
That is a well timed shot, Pete! 🙂
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Thank you, Indira, but I think luck played its part, too 🙂
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Such long, stilt-like legs, too!
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Yes, it sure has long thin legs!
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Fooled me too the first time I saw one. It was doing a sort of break-dance thing on a concrete paving slab in the back garden, spinning round and round on its ”backside”. Seriously weird!
I love the legs. Like a stilt walker!
We don’t have any woodland close by here. That’s something I do miss from the UK. Wherever we lived – depending on where my father was posted (He was in the RAF) there was always woods or suchlike nearby,
Nice one,Pete!
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Thank you very much, Ark 🙂
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