Thursday April 6

A lovely sunny day with a very light north-westerly breeze.

After a fruitless visit to the paper shop in search of a Guardian which had not been delivered, bagging six Redwings as a reminder that winter hasn't quite gone yet, the morning was spent hanging around the garden and indulging in a bit of token gardening. A Dunnock posed beautifully on the fence posts as it sang in defence of its territory.

Dunnock

We are still not really seeing butterflies in the garden, so I had to make do with bees. I did at least get a bee tick in the form of a female Hairy-footed Flower Bee. I have always wanted to see one if only because of the slightly silly name.

Hairy-footed Flower Bee in flight with tongue extended to lap up some nectar

The Rosemary is just about the only plant in our garden which is attracting insects at the moment. The next species to appear was an Early Bumblebee, Bombus pratorum. It was typically difficult to photograph.

Early Bumblebee

Somewhat similar to a Buff-tailed Bumblebee, but this queen is much smaller, similar in size to a Common Carder Bee, which also visited.

The final bee to appear was caked in pollen, and showed quite well.

Red Mason Bee - Osmia bicornis

It was a Red Mason Bee, a species I have recorded in the garden before.

In the afternoon, a sure sign that the weather is warming up was that Lyn was keen to come to Arrow Valley Lake with me to have a look at the Grey Heron nests.

Grey Heron with chick. Mission accomplished.

Lyn really enjoyed getting out, the park lake being a very wheelchair friendly environment. The birds were a little uninspiring for me, but we saw about six pairs of Great Crested Grebes, and had a brief view of a Kingfisher. It was interesting that I heard no Willow Warblers and just one Blackcap. Perhaps my last visited just coincided with an arrival of passage migrants. Admittedly the afternoon is not ideal for hearing birds sing though.

Displaying Great Crested Grebes

Arty-farty view of reeds against the lake

Shortly before we reached the car we saw a couple of Orange-tip butterflies, although neither posed for photographs.

This evening I spotted a White-shouldered House Moth on the landing, my second moth species this year.