My new macro lens (the Nikkor Z MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S if you must know) arrived in the mail yesterday afternoon. I’ve been playing around with it in the yard today. This lens is one of Nikon’s newer Z mount styles to pair with my Z8 that I’ve been using for much of this year. I originally bought a used copy of the 105mm macro, but within a week of owning it, it broke, so I sent it back and ordered a brand new version. This way, any damage to it gets done by me, not the ghost of lens owners past.
One of the best subjects for macro photography is bees. And since we’ve been planting more native flowering plants over the past year or two, we’re well stocked with them! The provencal and Spanish lavenders (non-native plants here in California) still attract mostly Western Honeybee (apparently renamed from European fairly recently), but I see some native bees on them frequently. (They’re just outnumbered by the dozens of honeybees.) Some of our weedy non-natives like Mexican Primrose and Wild Mustard also attract the bees.
The natives we’ve been planting, appear to attract the widest variety of native bees, though: just this morning on one plant, I had bees in Lasioglossum, Agapostemon, Melissodes, Bombus, and even some kleptoparasitic bees in Sphecodes! (Not even counting all the bees that were too fast for me to get a picture.)
bee_melissodes_sp_20260612
By far the most pollinator-attractive native flower we’ve got is Cleveland Sage, which is an exuberant plant in the genus Salvia. It has lavender/purple/blue flowers in giant whorls. It’s truly an astonishing plant, growing well over three feet tall and wide, and we’ve only had it in the ground for one winter. I don’t remember which variety we have, but it’s likely Pozo Blue. It could easily be one of several other forms, though.
I do find that the most common butterfly in our yard prefers our abundant crop of mustard weed, though. I find that these butterflies, while flighty, tend to cooperate much more nicely than the bees. Here’s a picture of a Cabbage White (now called Small White) from today:
