The Buttercup Meadows of Farndon

I don't just photograph bees, I do have a non-apid life, I need to stress. It's just that they are such a rewarding, and varied, target.

In the leafy cover of Willow Holt, the sharply pointed white stars of wild garlic flowers are currently the most prominent flora, with the stems of red campion rising to tower amongst these blooms. But further round the river, yellow is the colour that dominates, and it is not oilseed rape either.

The buttercup meadows have come into flower.

On a sunny day, there can be few finer sights than these wonderful golden fields, a warmer gold than the harsh yellow of oilseed rape and without the cloying smell. To run alongside these meadows, bordered by the river along which small tortoiseshells, peacocks and orange tips flitter and flutter, is a joy.

Soon the damselflies - the common blue and metallically glinting banded demoiselle will join them in the air, but none in sight here yet. In winter owls patrol the hedgelines as the early dusks settle in, but on a day like this, Hedwig and his friends are staying well out of sight.

The sun casts crisp shadows on the paths, and a gentle breeze blows me home.

The fields are softly aglow

Buttercups into the distance

Female orange tip fail

Red clover

Spot the two cormorants. Blowed if I can.

All the Bees!

Out came the sun, off a running went mr crackered, and on my trusty mobile phone camera, I pictured all the bees! These pictures were taken mainly in the library park and also South Parade park, and I post this mixture of honey bees and bumbles with no further comment, for your apid pleasure!

Rare Bumblebees in Newark?

I shared a couple of pictures on social media, taken with my mobile phone at Sconce Park, in the wallflower bed at Rumbles cafe. It's a habit I've developed, there are always things to photograph and these bee pictures always seem to come out very vividly. They are among the best nature pictures I've taken on the smartphone.

I've seen these black bumblebees before, and had always identified them as male field cuckoo bumblebees, not having found any other black bumbles to identify them as. But when I published these pictures, Roger @chardbirder kindly pointed out that cuckoo bumblebees do not have pollen sacs, which these bees clearly do.

He proposed that in stead of Bombus Campestris - the field cuckoo bumblebee these may actually be Bombus Ruderatus, the ruderal bumblebee, a far rarer species. These are actually the only TWO black bumblebees to be found.

This is not conclusive, as Roger said, ruderatus is a large species, and these guys didn't seem tht big to me. But the presence of a pollen sac is indisuputable.

I hope they are ruderal bumblebees, I just love the thought that our town park harbours something that is really quite special!

A black bumble, with a pollen sac

Another view

More on Newark Fly Tipping

This is a journalism exercise I wrote for my online course, I thought it might be fun to put this up here for you to read. The people may be fictional, but the issue of fly tipping here very much isn't.

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Anger Grows Over Fly Tipping

Newark councillors today responded to claims that the town has become a magnet for fly tippers.

Newark town council has stated that they are determined to stamp out the problem of fly tipping around the outskirts of the town, after a local resident sent them twenty-three pictures of individual fly tips in the roads around Newark.

“We understand that fly tips are a blight on our townscape, and we are doing all we can to eradicate the problem” stated Council Environment Spokesman Alan Smith.

“If we receive notice that rubbish has been dumped in our area, we will normally try and arrange its removal within forty-eight hours.”

However, the resident who took the pictures, local cyclist Simon Jones, said that some of the tips had been there for weeks without being cleared.

“It's a disgrace. There's builder's rubble dumped on the Cotham – Elston road that has been there for four weeks at least, and asbestos too. Other stuff I've seen includes fridges and freezers, and garden waste too.”

“The council needs to do something about this, and those responsible have to be punished. They are an eyesore and a health hazard.”

Mr Smith denied that fly tips had been left for so long, but added that the council could only remove dumps that they knew about.

“We are reliant on the public to locate and remove these sites, especially those in remote country lanes. They can do this by phone, e-mail or even by notifying our twitter account.”

“If we can identify those responsible, then they will be prosecuted.”

He added that even in times of economic hardship, people should be careful about who they ask to dispose of their waste.

“Many people, understandably, do not wish to pay for the council or genuine waste disposal companies to collect their builder's rubble or old white goods. But it is important they understand that by using unregulated waste disposal, their rubbish may not be disposed as properly as they'd like.”

“In the case of white goods, the metal parts such as the pumps are removed for recycling for profit, while the carcasses containing toxic chemicals are left on the roadside to pollute the environment.”

When we reported Mr Smith's response to Mr Jones, he replied “I don't care how they do it, I just want to see these harmful eyesores removed.”

The Swifts Arrive at New Look RSPB Langford Lowfields

Weather great, I had a desire to see beautiful things, so aboard the bike I got.

As ever, I had reckoned without the wind, which was blasting along the trent vale as ever. I arrived at Langford Lowfields having scared up a fair few small tortoiseshells from their sunbathing places on the tarmac, and seen a big buzzard settling into a stand of trees.

But when I arrived, something had changed. There were new signs on the path. Gates that were formally closed, had opened. Around phase 1 where people had feared to tread, couples with telescopes were freely wandering.

The reserve has been opened up.

Initially I set up in the hide a normal, and scanned the reedbed, and noticed sand martins and also my first swifts of the year; the screaming scimitars of the sky have returned! Plenty of white butterflies, large and small, and still there are wonderful citrus yellow brimstones in flight - I finally managed to stalk one to get a decent picture, see below.

Enough of that, I headed to the previously forbidden land, and ascending a bank and down the other side, I found myself at a quaint beach hut decked out with furniture, a sighings book and some lovely art and handy reference books.

I set off round the circular path, hearing for the first time the strange insectoid sound of grasshopper warblers reeling from the reeds, and seeing sand martins flit just over my head before sitting on the barbed wire fence. I was seeing the reed bed from a whole different angle, gettting a closer view of a duck enabling me to identify it as a gadwall, a new spot for me.

The wind howled along, but I saw warblers diving out of trees and back in again- whitethroats maybe? - and examined flowers. Over a floating bridge I went, seeing more swifts arriving on the breeze to feed.

This really is Spring, a new season, and a new reserve to visit

Tired small tortoiseshell sunning itself

Brimstone at rest

Male small white

Ground Ivy

Birds foot trefoil

The Beach Hut

A new view of the reserve

The new walkway

A view of the hide I've never had before

Newark Nature Around and About

Feels like I've been barely inside all day, I've been parkrunning, walking and cycling, discarding my jacket and letting the sun hit my skin, taking the edge off the occasional northerly chill in the air. The hedgerows are busy with restless orange tips; small whites and large whites are on the wing and proving to be equally difficult to photograph.

Blooms are shining in the sun, hawthorn blossom is everywhere. I'm allowed to have ice creams in the market square, and listen to Radio 4 plays while on the move - that makes me sound old. I didn't think about work, and enjoyed my tea at Rumbles on the Sconce.

A simple day, but a greatly pleasurable one.

Fly on a buttercup

Sickly red tailed bumblebee

Tree bumblebee on a white bluebell

The perfect buttercup

Unknown bee drinking nectar

Twenty plume moth in my kitchen

Orange Tips and Fly Tips

A day of running and cycling kicking off with ten miles on the bike on a bright but cool morning. More and more orange tips are about now, males and females, but no brimstones and not so many peacocks. Then again it isn't warm enough to be great butterfly weather.

I wanted to see what was home on Cotham Flash paddocks, having seen yellow wagtails in the area last week, but the field was entirely empty, and not just because the owner has spread horse manure and sout concrete blocks down, presumably to prevent the sort of fly tipping I saw further down. Considerate fly tippers had stuffed an old caravan full of rubbish before dumping it.

I despise the fly tipping that spoils all my running and cycling routes, I really do.

In the afternoon, I ran the coddington route, saw swallows, but despite craning my neck into various uncomfortable positions, saw none of the swifts that have been reported at Kings Mill Reservoir today. Newly arrived migrants seem to love that lake, it seems like a very rich food source for hungry hirundids and, er, swiftids.

Hopefully they will be screeching over town soon.

Geniune concerns? Or NIMBYs

Cotham church at a distance

Fly tipped caravan

Flying bumblebee at the sconce

Another flighty, flitty orange tip