Dark Edged Bee Fly

[Christel]

Just seen one, for the first time in my life

[Les]

Every day's a school day - never heard of 'em before!

[Christel]

Nor had I, it was Ovenpaa's son who identified it for us.

It has a long proboscis that it uses to feed on nectar, it was on primroses prior to the picture being taken.

Ovenpaa spotted it, my reaction was "what on earth is that"

[Pete]

Here's one I shot this afternoon............not dark edged, though.

Pete

[Les]

hoverfly.jpg

Here's one I shot this afternoon............not dark edged, though.
Pete

What Macro lens are you using, Pete?

[Pete]

This was taken with a Nikon 300mm AF-S 1:4 D plus a TC14-E ll convertor on a D810 at a distance of around 2 metres.
Not a macro lens as such.
I was just enjoying tea in the sunshine while blatting hand held at a some lungwort plants that were covered in these flies.
It was the only shot out of around 20 that was worth keeping...................

Pete

[Les]

That sounds like quite a setup! Are you a professional photographer, or just a very keen 'amateur'?

Great result, in any case!

[ovenpaa]

That's a very nice picture Pete. I remember trying to take a picture of a Hummingbird Hawk Moth a few years ago, all I got was a blur...

[Pete]

Technical photography was part of my job, back in the day...............nowadays, I'm just an amateur who likes using nice stuff...............
Although shooting's mothballed for the foreseeable, I still have plenty of other nice toys to play with

Pete

[Lampuki]

There appears to be quite a lot of them around this year. Either that or I'm spending too much time in my garden.