Today's Critters

 A very blustery day today, very much your cliche "Four Seasons in One Day" type day you get this time of year. 

So far, it's not been a great spring for butterflies round here, but other pollinators have been about in between sharp showers. I took a walk round Sconce Park and the Library Gardens to see what I might see. 

So, what I have for you today is a vestal cuckoo bumblebee, an unidentified mining bee that I thought was a yellow legged mining bee but has iNaturalist stumped, and finally, lucky chance shots of a hairy footed flower bee on the wing. 

Warmer, less windy weather is forecast, so we will see what's around tomorrow! 

I love spring. 

Si 

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 30.03.26 

Dining on Dandelions

A much nicer day today, and consequently there was much more to see as I went on my hour's worth of Boris Walk round our cricket ground and Sconce Park today.

I saw my first worker bumbles, three sand martins over the River Trent, lots of other things buzzing about, and pretty orange tip males making their way about the hedgerows in greater numbers than before.

Not seeing many brimstones, which is disappointing.

Lots of dandelions are in flower, like little glowing sunsets, and as ever they are a vital supply of food for early season pollinators. One of the customers was a beautifully pristine female green veined white butterfly, and the little mining bee you can see in the pictures below. It looks a little, er, little to be a tawny mining bee male and so I have no idea what species it is.

We had a couple of folk working at the cricket ground today, and we talked of renovation and the chance of getting any matches this summer. Maybe in late June early July we can play.

It was hard to hear, as I made sure I stood ten metres away.

This social distancing will be a hard habit for me to break.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 14.04.20

Observing a Mining Bee Mining

I had finished with my run, and was rewarding myself with a 60p Magnum clone from Jas' place on Banbygate - I'll wager I've written that before somewhere - and had headed to the library to do some research on bird nests for a putative newspaper article when I noticed a little, and now familiar, russet flash of colour on the ground.

Closer inspection revealed it to be a mining bee of some description, although its yellow legs seem to mark it as a different species from the tawny ones I've photographed.

As I watched, it began to dig down into the earth, backside up in the air until that was all was that left visible. Presumably this species lays its eggs underground, although the stripy abdomen would surely indicate this specimen was a male.

It ad almost disappeared completely when an angry ant attacked it, and presumably a dose of formic acid caused the bee to think better of mining here, and fly off.

Sadly my first pictures of the encounter failed, but I still got a few.

Si

Digging down

Getting further in

Ant attack!!!