Bumble Bee Rescue

This item has been delayed by a couple of days, but was an episode which I felt I did my bit for humanity.

It began by my spotting an almost comatose bumble bee by the locked front door; obviously it had been considering a way to reach the outside world, but had been thwarted by the lack of sustenance in the house. I have no idea how long it had been there, but certainly, long enough to try to conserve its energy, with a hope it might eventually be able to return to the wide open expanses to which it had been accustomed.

It was in luck, because I had its best interests at heart, I hastily went to the kitchen for a jam jar and some stiff card to construct an ambulance for its passage to the Outside World. Having transported it to the next stage of that passage, by placing it carefully on my front hedge in the carefully crafted emergency rescue plan of giving it an eventually higher platform for its flight, I returned to the kitchen to prepare some restorative medicine in the form of a dessert spoon with a teaspoon of sugar and a few drops of water.

However, the bee had not waited for me to complete my plans for its takeoff, it had simply decided terra firma was preferable, so I carefully placed the elixir alongside his weakened body, and hoped he would find his survival instinct would kick in and he would try to take a drought from my spoon. Initially, he lacked trust in this giant despite being wounded not at all by my transporting him back to his world, thus far. I moved the spoon and it’s life-giving elixir closer.

I forgot to mention that I had wasted no time in grabbing my EOS R, attaching the 24 to 70mm with its macro facility, before coming outside to record my hopefully successful rescue this vital member of our joint ecosystem deserved.

So, though the full story of its initial start on the road to recovery had been the top of the hedge, at least my arrival to witness his new start point was early enough to show his lethargy, despite my ministrations with the sugar solution offering, it still distrusted my motives, until presumably it sniffed the recognisable aroma of the sugar, and decided I was not as evil as it had previously presumed.

Soon I could see that it had begun to suck up this welcome nectar, but it tarried very briefly before moving away and for the first time since my rescue attempt had started, it unfurled its wings and gave a slight burst, which for me was heartwarming, and a few moments later I was thrilled to see it take to the air, no last circuit to say thank you, just off into the distance, thankful to be back in its own territory — airborne once more.