Prickly Poppies, Bees and a Grasshopper

Prickly Poppies with a small bee – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/2500, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

Earlier this month I had seen a few stands of Prickly Poppies blooming in the West Desert near the Stansbury Mountains but they had been damaged by what appeared to be some kind of spray so yesterday when I found a few more Prickly Poppies that were undamaged I decided to focus on a few of them for a bit.

Each Prickly Poppy flower is about 3 to 5 inches across with yellow centers of clustered stamens and delicate petals that look like white crepe paper. The stems, flower buds, leaves and seed pods have spines on them and they look more than a little prickly, I wouldn’t want to touch them.

I am not sure what species of bee I photographed with these Prickly Poppies but I liked how the bee was clinging to the yellow stamens.

Prickly Poppies with a grasshopper and a bumblebee – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/3200, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

I was also able to photograph some Prickly Poppies that had a bumblebee and a grasshopper in the frame, I am not sure of the species on those either. The bumblebee seemed to make the grasshopper a bit wary because it jumped off the poppy right after this photo was taken.

Bumblebee and Prickly Poppies – Nikon D500, f13, 1/800, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

I took a few more images of the poppies and the bumblebee after the grasshopper left because I liked the sunny yellow stamens, the pollen on the legs of the bumblebee and the pure white petals of these wildflowers.

Life is good.

Mia

Click here to see more of my flower, shrub and tree photos. Click here to see my insect and spider galleries.