I admire folks who can take good insect pictures. Regardless of the equipment you have, they are extremely difficult to do.
Yesterday I noticed a tiny bee going in and out of a mason bee condo. She was much smaller and quicker than a mason bee and I really wanted her portrait. I snapped several dozen of her coming and going, and all I got was several dozen pictures of empty holes.
Eventually, I got a picture of her tail end. Not good, but better than nothing:
Tail end of an unknown bee. Photo by the author.
Then I got a shot of her pollen-smudged face. No good for identification, but at least she’s kind of cute:
Tiny bee with pollen. Photo by the author.
After giving up on her, I found a bumble bee that was slightly more accommodating:
Bumble bee on Ceanothus.
This cross spider was building a trap for my pollinators:
Cross spider preparing for supper.
But, here is my favorite. This is a fly. I don’t know anything about flies except to say this one was holding still. For that, he (she?) won a place in my heart:
Fly holding still. Photo by the author.
Rusty
It looks like a Japanese hornfaced bee. They are everywhere in Maryland.
Bryan,
It was identified by BugGuide.net as definitely an Osmia species but whether it was a Japanese horn-faced bee (Osmia cornifrons) is impossible to tell from the photo. But you are right; it could be. It seems they have become established in western Washington and Oregon.