In an earlier post I showed a photograph of a bee I thought was Willoughby's Leaf-cutter Bee. I also submitted the photograph to irecords where it was assessed by a bee expert as "plausible". Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but I like to think it simply meant that the photograph didn't show enough for full acceptance.
At the time there was no evidence of the activity in the garden, but yesterday I discovered this:
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| Holes blocked by leaf-plugs |
Clearly there is a species of leaf-cutter bee in the garden. Bees scare me, not because of the sting, but because the species are numerous and many are very similar to one another. However, I will try to see, and perhaps photograph, the comb on the underside of their bodies which can be very useful in sorting out the leaf-cutters.
Just two moths last night, both micros, and both tricky.
One was a tortrix which I believe to be Barred Fruit-tree Tortrix, while the other was a stronger candidate than the moth I photographed a week ago on the bathroom ceiling, and decided was
Blastobasis adustella. This time I was much more certain.
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| Barred Fruit-tree Tortrix |
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| Blastobasis adustella |
Turning briefly to birds, I saw four Swifts this morning, which reminded me how poor it has been for them around here this year. On the other hand our feeders were deluged in Blue Tits, Long-tailed Tits, Great Tits, and Coal Tits this morning. The activity being so frenetic that Lyn and I abandoned the telly and ate our breakfast watching them come and go.
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| Hungry juvenile Blue Tits |
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