Well, it's been a footballing evening tonight - not that I've been all that interested - and like the sport, today has been a match of two halves. The morning and some of the afternoon was saturatingly wet and muggy, which meant my morning walk to the park took place in that sexy kag of mine again, while the late afternoon and evening saw blue skies and sun and thus me on a run.
Bees had been around even during the wet morning, as it was still pretty warm, and in the park they had feeding off the herbs in the cafe garden. But when the sun came out they were everywhere as I ran across the Owl Lands; on poppies, cow parsley, comfrey and all manner of wildflowers. For some reason, today was a day for the white tailed bumbles, they were the dominant species on view along with many early bumblebees, and a few red tailed and an occasional carder.
There were some very heavy pollen sacs to be seen!
Hoverflies were about too, and I saw my first chimneysweeper moths of the year. They love the north meadow at Devon Pastures and are never seen anywhere else on the park.
The ground was damp and quaggy, and the Owl Lands were looking wilder than I've ever seen them before. What could have been meadow pipits were singing in the long grass; and as I ran I flushed up a couple of partridges and a snipe. I was delighted to see another hare, but this time it didn't pose for photographs.
A big raptor flew very slowly overhead; a marsh harrier passing through? They've been seen here before. It was too far away to identify however.
Back on shift tomorrow, to be a communications champion.
Si
All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 20.06.16
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| Tree bumbles nesting in my home! |
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| Love this shot! |
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| Comfrey bee |
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| White tail on the cow parsely |
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| And another! |
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| Neat wings |
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| Tree bumblebee in the park |
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| Chimneysweeper moth |
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| Hoverfly |
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| On the geraniums |
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| Early bumblebee as the sun came out |
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| Red tailed bumblebee |
I have a large square tub in the garden which has been completely taken over by thyme. At present it is in full flower and it is absolutely covered in bees Si.
ReplyDeleteI really wish I knew more about them - they are all what I would loosely call bumble bees but they vary from very small ones to very large ones.
Lovely to see all the Bees, we to have Bees nesting in the roof, a few are struggling though. Great shot of the Chimney sweeper moth, seen some today but struggled to get a photo.
ReplyDeleteAmanda xx
Thank you both very much! Just enjoy what you see, and be glad you have bees visiting.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen, or heard of before now, a ChimneySsweeper moth.
ReplyDelete