Carissa Conti (@Carissa_Conti)

I don't usually do back to back nature photography/video posts, but this one is pretty cool so I want to post it. New vid I just uploaded of a massive bee hive we came across yesterday at Pondhawk Natural Area, here in Boca. Tom and I have never actually seen a bee hive in the wild, so this was a first. !! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8O0Yqa0978 (Backstory can be found in video description....) Now for another, REALLY nutso, bee story.... Back on 7/21/21 I was riding my bike on the El Rio Trail. At about 2.5 miles into my ride, approaching Park of Commerce Boulevard, I was suddenly compelled to reach my left hand up and start touching the top of my head. I hadn't consciously felt anything going on there, but started touching my head anyway...as if expecting that there was something there. Sure enough my hand felt something small and fuzzy-ish and.....vibrating slightly......on my hair......and several of them I realized, as my hand passed over my hair. O.o I reflexively brushed at my head quickly without thinking, feeling weirded out and confused, my brain taking a few seconds to catch up to what was happening here......that there were apparently BEES on my head.......because it was something completely improbable and bizarre that had never happened in my life. And meanwhile I'm flying along at ~15 mph, one handed at this point. So there was a lot to try to process while maintaining awareness and coordination in only a few seconds. Then I felt compelled to take my right hand off the handlebars and reach around to pat at the spot behind my left armpit, even though I hadn't consciously felt anything going on there either, and again, while flying along at ~15 mph. And sure enough my hand felt a small, fuzzy-ish buzzing/vibrating thing going on there as well. Apparently another bee, just....hanging onto me while biking......but not being aggressive or trying to sting, same as the ones that had been on my head. Just....clinging on to me. Because I kept patting down on it, getting freaked out and a bit more reflexively aggressive I soon felt a telltale needle-like pinprick. DID I.....?!?! IS THAT....?!!! OH NO IT DIDN'T!!! I JUST GOT STUNG!!!!! 😲 WTFFFFFF IS HAPPENING HERE?!?!?!?!!!! With every passing second the sting grew increasingly more painful, cutting my trip short as I had to turn around and immediately head back home, though it was never close to the level of a wasp sting. But never in my history of biking, or biking on the El Rio Trail has something like this EVER happened. I was freaked out about it all for a good week+ after, because this isn't how the world works. !! Bees don't freaking LAND on you when you're biking, at ~15 mph! in some casual, non aggressive way!! Like you're some sort of Uber, and they're like "Oh cool! Let's just land on her and hitch a ride so we can rest!" No, that's not how reality works. !! O.o (Part 2/"Prologue" to this story continued in comments👇👇)