There are usually bees around whatever is flowering on the balconies, and I had never had a close look until the other day, when a conspicuous large brown and hairy bee was hanging around the rosemary. A quick search got me to the excellent Aussie Bee website and I found it was probably a brown carpenter bee. Then I realized that the rest of the bees that feed from the rosemary weren’t plain old honey bees, but blue barred bees. Right here in the middle of Sydney! It’s good to think that they can manage with nesting sites and all the rest.
Now that I’ve got my eye in, I see that they behave differently to honeybees too. They are very quick at each flower, and hover rather than landing like honeybees do. They also check each other out with quick circling flights all the time. They’re very wary of me, so I was glad to get a couple of photos; they seem a bit calmer in the late afternoon.