It's a Bee's Life

 The nights are a bit cooler, and the bees aren't always making it "home" before they have trouble flying.  The solitary bees (those that do not live communally in a nest or hive) don't go "home" at all.  The bees caught out too late, and solitary bees sleep in flowers.  It's warmer near a nectar source.  

I caught (with my camera, I let them sleep) these two carpenter bees early one recent morning.  One was asleep clutching an artichoke flower, the other laying in a four o'clock.  

I happened to come back just as it was waking!

It flew right to a nearby flower to eat. 

It doesn't look like it's eating, it looks upside down, because Carpenter bees are nectar robbers.  They chew little holes in the base of flowers to reach the nectar they are otherwise too large to access.  

These are photos from a few years ago of a different bee nectar robbing from a penstemon flower which is much too narrow for the bee's body to reach the nectar deep inside. 

It's a learned behavior.  Honey bees are watching and seeing how much easier it is to use an already chewed hole than to crawl inside a flower!