108 thoughts on “Caption contest”

    2. lots of additional bee-puns below (much appreciated), but this is a wasp (yellowjacket) not a bee.

      Please someone try a funny caption with yellow jacket, or with Dolichovespula.

      2. “What? I don’t need a jacket – yellow or otherwise – I have my plumage to keep me warm!”

  3. 1) A teachable moment

    2) An impending research subject for future studies of Batesian mimicry.

    1. If it matters, why yes it is. Here’s an article from the otherwise-vile Daily Express:

      Elena Murzyn, 22, captured the image of the Cooper’s hawk looking startled as the yellow and black striped insect buzzed in front of him while on a visit to Seattle.

      The student, from Spokane, Washington, took her first photo at the age of 13 and couldn’t believe her eyes when the hawk was photobombed.

      Elena, who also works as an animal caretaker, said: “The Cooper’s hawk in the photo is actually an imprint falconry that was raised by a falconer.

      “In the photo, he is just over two months old, and due to his human-reared upbringing, talks, chirps, and screams his thoughts constantly.

      “What made the photo so fantastic was seeing this incredibly talkative bird literally stop mid-scream to focus on the unexpected wasp so near his beak.

      “If you look closer, you’ll notice that at the moment of the photo, only one eye is actually focused on the wasp.

      “The other is still in the direction he was looking a fraction of a second earlier.

      “The sequence of photos before and after shows his scream start, freeze, start again, and then end as he tries to eat the wasp – it was incredible.”

      Keen animal photographer Elena came agonisingly close to deleting the snap but was left in stitches after spotting the image while searching through the images on her camera.

      She said: “I did not realise I had managed to capture such a rare moment on film until I ran through the photos later that evening.

      “I knew there had been a wasp buzzing around while I was out with the camera, but I told myself it was probably well out of focus and a lost chance anyway.

      “The wasp was only there for a span of perhaps two seconds.

      “I was tapping the next arrow repeatedly through the photos desperately trying to find one that highlighted the excellent lighting over his feathers, and deleting the ones that looked even slightly off in the same motion.

      “I remember tapping past this one, getting maybe three or four past it, pausing, and tapping back slowly.

      “I laughed harder in that moment than I had all week.

      “That instant reaction of hilarity is why I love this photo and from what I’ve heard and seen, it seems to be a pretty universal reaction.”

      http://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/547094/Elena-Murzyn-photo-of-a-hawk-being-photobombed-by-wasp

  10. 1: “Close the pod bay doors, HAL”.

    2: “That’s not a moon – It’s a space station!”

  21. At the Metropolitan Opera: Dame Tiri Te Vespula and Cooper Hawke perform the tragic finale of Verdi’s Aida.

      1. It appears to be! I’m still holding my breath, though, and there seems to be a gap of about a full day of lost emails. 🙁

          1. lol!

            Yeah, I’m debating whether to tell my husband I’m back up or not. 😀 (He’s travelling.)

  30. The Coopers Hawk is as focused on the bee as Roger Federer is on the ball when setting up a backhand.

  38. God, what a terrible hangover it had earned him though. He looked at himself in the wardrobe mirror. He stuck out his tongue. “Yellow,” he thought. The word yellow wandered through is mind in search of something to connect with.

    Fifteen seconds later he was out of the nest and reaching his beak towards a big yellow bug that was flying up his tree.

    Cheers,

    b&

        1. Wow – what a terribly maladapted prey species – This thing could not be any easier to see.

  39. Another shot at it,
    bzzzz.. What the hell is he surprised about, hasn’t he seen a full fledged member of the Dolichovespula family before.. he needs to get out more!

  46. Staring at (my, anyway) screen at about arm’s length, the yj drifts into the hawk’s mouth.

    1. Doh… didn’t spot that the phrase “buzz kill” had been used earlier. Nothing new under the sun and all that….

  51. The opera world was stunned today as world-renowned tenor Cooper Hawk seemingly hit a sour note during the Seattle premiere of “La Dolichovespula” (The Yellow Jacket).
    But after reviewing a recording of the performance, critics agreed it wasn’t a bee sharp after all.

    1. B♯ is a very peculiar beasties, indeed.

      In the real world, you’ll only ever encounter it as the leading tone to C♯, and that’s pretty rare. B♯ is enharmonically equivalent to C♮ and it’s probably most common to see C♮ used even when, strictly speaking, B♯ is correct.

      And the key of B♯, if I’ve got the math right, would itself have five double sharps. Save as a joke, there never has been nor ever will be anything written in the key of B♯.

      Cheers,

      b&

      P.S. Hope the accidentals came through…. b&

  58. 1) “I’m adopted?!! That explains EVERYTHING!!!”

    2) Buzzy and Screech, coming this fall to ABC! She wants to ruin people’s cookouts. He wants to eat their small pets. The only thing they do agree on is love!

    3) “Nope. It’s not down there, either. where the heck did I leave my phone?”

    4) Georgia Tech makes its move after Miami (Ohio) gives them a big opening.

    5) “Okay, now I see the problem with your teeth: you don’t have any.”

  61. The birds and the bees. This picture was taken by my friend Elena Murzyn. it is her hawk Sherlock. she is an amazing photographer.

  63. This might be a little obscure but:

    “What was I supposed to do, accuse him of cheating better than I was?”

  65. Comment flagged! Your waspish remarks stung me to the core, and aren’t welcome on social beedia.

  66. I’m trying to work out how to mix cats and pions (the meson sub-atomic particles) to launch a catpion competition.

  68. WHAT–well, I’ll bee, a YELLOW Anglo-Saxon Protester? (You can tell that it’s not the fuzz.) I guess the answer to Hamlet’s always-timely question is “no.”

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