2023 update

No new posts since 2019, but the Flickr photostream and species counts are still active

Half-way through 2019

This spring was a good one for solitary bees – tawny miners everywhere: females emerging,

with males standing by

Then there were hairy-footed flower bees, ashy mining bees, red mason bees, leafcutter bees…

and of course bumblebees

Not so good for butterflies so far, perhaps because of the long wet spell, and the annual emergence of scarlet tiger moths was late

but garden birds are doing well, with adults feeding fledgling starlings, robins, bluetits, great-tits, blackbirds, house sparrows… and, as always, wood-pigeons and collared doves. Here are just a few:

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Coming next: butterflies (I hope), whitethroats, skylarks, hedgehogs – and cuckoo bumblebees.

Garden Birdwatch 2019

House sparrows still here (possibly more than the 14 I counted), and for the first time a male blackcap. Some big birds – jackdaws, wood pigeons and collared doves – turned up, but no finches at all. I hope the goldfinches will be counted somewhere else!

Dry-weather butterflies

It may be too early to tell whether the prolonged dry spell has affected butterfly numbers; so far things are not looking too bad, with these apparently enjoying the sun in the garden (plus a few holly blues and the odd comma that I didn’t manage to photograph). I was surprised to find that nearly all the whites were green-veined:

Scarlet tigers – early this year

Just the odd one so far;
last year the best show was a couple of weeks later, so here’s hoping…

Meanwhile. it’s good to see a few linnets around

Garden Birdwatch 2018

Another RSPB annual Big Garden Birdwatch, and ten years’ data from the local patch (click the image for an expanded view in Flickr). As always, some regular visitors were absent – jackdaws, collared doves, goldfinches – but there were more house sparrows than ever. This year a sparrowhawk did turn up, but it didn’t catch anything, and the small birds re-emerged from the brambles within a few minutes.

Early Summer

“Variable” just about sums it up:

June – the Marjoram patch attracted a wide range of  hoverflies, bees and other invertebrates

and Field Scabious appeared in the “meadow”

July – butterflies, mostly a bit earlier than usual (and, of course, nowhere to be seen by the time of the Big Butterfly Count at the end of the month)

very few ladybirds, except some 22-spots breeding on a mildewed thistle

but it was good to see this chiffchaff catching insects in a plum tree

and many hoverflies, including several Volucella zonaria (the UK’s biggest hoverfly)
and its smaller cousin V. inanis

August isn’t quite over, so I’ll save that for another day.

Scarlet Tigers – annual update

The best show of scarlet tigers in the 8 years I’ve been watching the comfrey patch

Two months later…

… and the “meadow” has transformed into a (planned) wilderness: the hawksbeard (rough or beaked, I’m not sure) is over a metre high, yellow rattle is everywhere, corncockles are just starting to flower and there is white clover, cut-leaf cranesbill and a host of other plants I haven’t identified yet, plus a few I could manage without – like meadow bindweed and cleavers. The marjoram and tufted vetch are doing well, but haven’t flowered yet.

Meanwhile there are more bumblebees than I’ve ever seen in the Cotoneaster and Buddleia globosa – there must be Bombus hypnorum (amongst others) nesting nearby, and I’ve seen the first – of many, I hope – small tortoiseshells today.

Rain next week!

Spring in the meadow

OK, it’s not really a meadow – just a bit of grass that only gets mown twice a year, and contains mostly weeds wildflowers (yellow rattle, corncockle, marjoram, hawkbit…). As soon as things start to warm up the Tawny Mining Bees appear

(males usually emerge before females, but they are harder to spot)
along with predatory cuckoo bees

and bee-flies

As in previous years I’m hoping for other solitary bees later, and if there’s anything to report I’ll send the info to the solitary bee project.