Honeybees and Milkweed

One of my favorite times to photograph flowers and insects is when the milkweed is in bloom. Normally I would find all kinds of bees, butterflies and other insects on the milkweed flowers and plants, but this year is different ...



Instead of finding hundreds of honeybees in patches of milkweed, I'm lucky to find a dozen honeybees and one, maybe two butterflies ...



I have seen almost none of the other milkweed insects on the plants, just a few honeybees ...



I'm not sure if last year's extremely wet weather caused a decline in insects. We're starting to see warmer/drier weather and I'll keep looking for the return of insect subjects (bee, butterflies, bugs ...) to photograph.



I did notice something strange this year when the milkweed first started to bloom, several honeybee (and some flies) would get their legs caught in the milkweed blossoms. On one evening I found 4 or 5 honeybees with their legs caught in the newly opened milkweed blossoms. I helped free the leg this honeybee and another one from milkweed blossoms.