Who ever heard of a blue bee?

At first we thought we had a BIG noisy black fly in our kitchen.  Upon trying to shoo him out the window, I noticed the blue metallic color. I called the kids in to show them the "really cool fly" and that's when we started noticing some other characteristics; the fuzzy hair, his bottom moving against the window as if trying to sting something. (You know the movement I'm talking about.)  We caught him in our bug container (thank you Grandma and Grandpa Gilson) for some closer observation and some blurry pictures.  (You try telling a not so happy bee to stop buzzing around.)   We got enough observing in and let him go outside.  He must not have gotten enough because this morning he was found making the slow ''I'm dying" walk on our kitchen floor.  (Our kitchen isn't that dirty or sticky I promise.  Glen even did the mopping yesterday.--Maybe that's the cause of the death walk?)  So lucky us got to observe this fascinating creature walking and stopping for perfect photo ops.  But who ever heard of a blue bee?

I LOVE THE INTERNET!!!

I searched "blue bee" and sure enough under the images there he was.  I was taken through a few different sites and eventually found the informative site (seen below) and found out all about him.  And I do keep saying "him" because the males are known for their long antennae.  Izzy made sure to point out the other site picture was of a female.  Cool bug and it wasn't even found on one of our nature hikes.

picture taken from: http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/apiculture/factsheets/506_osmia.htm

If you're interested in reading more info, check out this site.