First birds of the year – well, almost.

Joe Pell – Linnet 2 Uploaded by snowmanradio via wikipedia

The first birds I heard this year were the gulls, flying in the dark towards the park to hunt for invertebrates and discarded pizzas. The first birds that I saw were a little flock of linnets, chattering their way from branch to branch along the footpath. The gulls were in evidence again today, but not the linnets!

More surprising was an active white-tailed bumble bee, pollen bags packed, busy on the white hellebore, but it has been the warmest New Year on record.

A moment in the life of Ivy

At the end of last month we passed this ivy covered wall, the tight clusters of flower buds about to burst out into clusters, and then, as Autumn eases down into winter, the bees will have their last outing before hibernation, living off the stored honey till Spring calls them out once more.

Working hard in the garden

The worker bees are enjoying the sunflowers, and they don’t mind a long day in the sun. They have more stamina for the heat than I do. Come the winter, when many of these workers will die, my friend P will hang out the sunflower seed heads for the birds. As always, P’s sunflowers are taller than mine by a good metre!

Bugs do like bug houses

My friend was worried because he had not seen any activity around his smart new Bug Hotel so we went to look at the little old one that has been there for four years at least. Here it is: the red arrows are pointing to bamboo tubes being used by a leafcutter bee; the yellow arrow shows where she was working when the picture was taken. I think there’s a corner of a wing visible. She lays an egg in each of the leaf-lined bedrooms she creates, together with enough honey to see her babies through to adulthood. Will they be back next year?

National Insect Week

I just read that today is the end of Britain’s National Insect Week, so here’s a bee, to remind us of how important they are. Thanks to the bees, this pyracantha, or firethorn, will be covered in flaming yellow, orange or red berries come the autumn. Our blackbirds love them. There’s always something to look forward to in the garden. Laudato si!

The bee-loud glade

There is a buzz in Canterbury these days, at least wherever there are lime trees. Even mere humans can pick up the honeyed scent of the flowers, but the bees are loving it.

I harvested plenty from around Saint Mildred’s church for my lime flower tea, now drying on the spare bedroom floor. The trees around the church are far enough from the main road to have escaped the worst of the pollution. The drink is refreshing ice cold. There’s still time to harvest yours!

Even the bees.

Even the bees are feeling the spring in mid-February.

I hope it warms you too, even if another beast from the East appears next month. And there were worms and centipedes in the compost heap that Abel and I were harvesting. A day to be out of doors!

orange tips

Two orange-tipped insects this week: a male orange tipped butterfly fluttered by the garden as Mrs T was taking tea, and a queen red-tailed bumble bee who was preening in the sunshine when this picture was taken. Thanks to Anneliese Emmans Dean of theBigBuzz blog on wordpress for the idenification!

Fifty years ago I used to see both of these often in Hampshire, but I don’t remember the last time I saw one of these bees in Kent or anywhere else. I need to keep my eyes open!

Another Commensal

There were a few screw holes left in our walls where fixtures were removed for the builders to get to work. One has been taken over by a line of parcels! Not brown paper but carefully cut scraps of rose leaf, each wrapping a food supply for the egg that the leaf-cutter bee has laid in there. This faces almost due North, so the outer larva will not roast to death.

That mother works hard for babies she’ll probably never know. And how well do we ever know our children? Off they go, God bless them, and how did they get like that?

Here is where you can send your sightings of bees in the United Kingdom: info@theBigBuzz.biz  or beecount@foe.co.uk . There is great concern that bees are losing ground in Britain.