The Dance
This honeybee isn't collecting lunch. She's gathering directions. When she gets back to the hive, she'll do what’s become known as The Dance: a figure-eight shimmy on the dark comb, where the angle of her waggle points her sisters toward the flowers, using the sun as a compass. The length of the waggle tells them how far to fly. Longer waggle, farther food. She even shifts her angle as the sun moves across the sky.
Karl von Frisch cracked that code and won a Nobel Prize for it in 1973. Here, captured in a garden in Red Deer, Alberta, she's working her way up a spike of mealycup sage, named for the fine, flour-like hairs that dust its flower cups.
Sometimes moments of noticing can be so simple; this image was captured while I was spending time in my family’s backyard, where my bonus mom always has beautiful flowers intended to attract pollinators.
What we protect begins with what we notice. My noticing leads to The Wild Land Project.
About This Image
Common name: Western honeybee on mealycup sage (likely)
Scientific name: Apis mellifera on Salvia farinacea
Location: Red Deer, Alberta, Canada
Collection: Things with Wings
