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It seems that we did not have a marmelade fly image for about … 2 days now, so I think it is time for another :-):

A marmelade fly rests on the petals of a large yellow flower before taking flight.

Marmelade Flies on a Yellow Flower

You might also want to enjoy the beautiful texture of those wonderful yellow flower petals. I did not play with the saturation, the color really is that lush!

As I said a few days ago, the anemones are currently popping up like crazy. It seems they are not the only ones, we’ve also got a huge number of mamelade flies:

Two marmelade flies collecting pollen and nectar from an anemone flower.

Marmelade Flies on an Anemone Flower

As you can tell, a marmelade fly (Episyrphus balteatus) looks a bit like a solitary wasp, but it really is a hoverfly and therefore quite harmless. Harmless to everyone and everything but aphids (plant lice or greenflies), that is, which the larvae (would that be marmelade larvae?) are fond of eating.

For this reason the marmelade flies are quite welcome in my garden and I like to have them come around. In case you are wondering, they do not seem to have the habit of becoming annoying like their house fly cousins.

These two, incidentally, are both males. You can tell this because the eyes touch at the top of the head, which is unique to the males. Isn’t it cool what you can find out if you take an interest in what shows up in your pictures? 😉

Here’s a fun shot I took while on my belly in the gras:

Yellow Flowers in Front of a Blue Sky.

Yellow Flowers in Front of a Blue Sky

I had to resist the temptation to increase the saturation of the blue sky to get a more in-your-face look, which would have meshed well with the super-saturated color of the flower. I prefer this rendition because it conveys the light, sunny feel that goes with that particular sky – if you have ever been to Bavaria in that kind of weather, you will know what a “Bavarian Sky” is and what I am talking about.

The anemones have just begun to bloom. I love these flowers and relish the opportunity to take pictures of them. Here is this year’s first (good) anemone picture:

A pink anemone flower photographed against the light.

Pink Anemone Flower

I like anemones for their delicate beauty which is so visible when you look at the colored veins and spots against the light. Can you see the tiny hairs that line the petals? And the shadows the flower throws on itself in the sunlight?

Have I mentioned that I really love these flowers? No, I do not think you could have guessed. 🙂

This summer, I was fascinated by some yellow flowers in the garden that seemed to hold an almost magical attraction to bees.

Honey Bee on Yellow Flower

I took this picture using an extension tube and a tripod. The problem with this setup was that the area in which the image was sharp was about 3-4 mm in depth and there was a breeze blowing. The swaying of the flower made it go in and out of focus, so I lost quite a number of interesting pictures due to lack of sharpness.

Does anyone have an idea what the name of the flower is?

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