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~ a celebration of nature

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Tag Archives: bees

95/366 The buzz of new life

04 Saturday Apr 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, ladybird, nature, spring

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

bees, British insects, bumblebees, flies, hoverflies

It only takes a few sunny days and warming temperatures to bring out the mini-beasties. These are some of the bees and bumbles, flies and hoverflies I’ve spotted over the past week or so. Oh, and I mustn’t forget, my first 7-spot ladybird of the season.

200404 1 tree bumble
200404 2 Melanostoma scalare hoverfly
200404 3 buff-tailed bumblebee
200404 4 buff-tailed bumblebee
200404 5 eristalis pertinax
200404 6 unknown bee
200404 7 eristalis pertinax
200404 8 lasioglossum sp
200404 9 nomada sp bee
200404 10 hairy-footed flower bee
200404 11 buff-tailed bumblebee
200404 12 hoverfly
200404 13 buff-tailed bumblebee
200404 14 fly
200404 15 7-spot ladybird
200404 16 fly
200404 17 epistrophe elegans hoverfly
200404 18 bee sp

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323/365 Autumn critters

19 Tuesday Nov 2019

Posted by sconzani in autumn, insects, nature, plants

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

autumn insects, bees, British insects, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, hoverflies, ivy flowers, moth larva, Red Admiral, wasp

It may be late autumn, with shortening days, chill winds and cooling nights but, when the sun comes out as it did yesterday, the insects also come out to warm themselves and feed. During my walk around Cosmeston I spotted a late Red admiral butterfly and then, further on, where ivy was still flowering, a host of flying mini-beasties: hoverflies, various bees and wasps. And, near them, tucked away further down on a bramble leaf, even a caterpillar, probably a moth larva though I’m not sure which species.

191119 autumn insects (1)
191119 autumn insects (2)
191119 autumn insects (3)
191119 autumn insects (4)
191119 autumn insects (5)
191119 autumn insects (6)

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259/365 Bumbling around

16 Monday Sep 2019

Posted by sconzani in autumn, insects, nature, wildflowers

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

bees, bees on scabious, British wildflowers, Buff-tailed bumble bee, bumblebee, Common carder, Devil's-bit scabious

I keep coming back to the Devil’s-bit scabious, I know, but it’s just so lovely and so full of life now that many of the other wildflowers have gone over. Bumblebees, in particular, seem to love feasting on it. I think these are Buff-tailed bumblebees and Common carders but don’t quote me!

190916 bumbles on scabious (1)
190916 bumbles on scabious (2)
190916 bumbles on scabious (3)
190916 bumbles on scabious (4)
190916 bumbles on scabious (5)
190916 bumbles on scabious (6)

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257/365 Ivy bees

14 Saturday Sep 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, autumn, insects, nature, plants

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

#365DaysWild, bees, British bees, Colletes hederae, ivy, Ivy bee, ivy flowers

I heard them before I saw them.

190914 ivy bees (7)

I’d been smelling the ivy flowers all day, as I walked one of my local circuits, though Cosmeston along to Lavernock and back to Penarth along the coastal path. But I hadn’t noticed any open flowers until I heard the loud buzzing coming from the ivy ahead of me on the path. It was alive with various species of bee and fly and hoverfly. And then I spotted what I was looking for – the ginger fluff and black-and-yellow-stripes of Ivy bees (Colletes hederae), my first for 2019.

190914 ivy bees (1)
190914 ivy bees (2)
190914 ivy bees (3)
190914 ivy bees (4)
190914 ivy bees (5)
190914 ivy bees (6)

You can find out more about these handsome creatures in my previous blogs here and here.

190914 ivy bees (8)

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246/365 On the scabious

03 Tuesday Sep 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, autumn, flowers, insects, nature, wildflowers

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

bees, Devil's-bit scabious, hoverflies, insects on scabious, Painted Lady, scabious, Small white butterfly

190903 devil's-bit scabious (1)

At this time of year, the delicate lilac tinge of Devil’s-bit scabious casts its imperial purple shadow across the meadows at Cosmeston and at Lavernock. I love it, and I’m not the only one.

190903 devil's-bit scabious (7)

It’s proving extremely popular as a late-summer early-autumn source of nectar for all manner of bees, butterflies and hoverflies. Here are a few I’ve seen in recent days …

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57/365 Buzzing

26 Tuesday Feb 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature, spring

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

bees, British insects, climate breakdown, climate change, hoverflies, insects emerging early, spring in winter

For the second day in a row, places in north Wales have posted record high winter temperatures and, though a chilly breeze has kept things a bit cooler here in the south, it’s still much warmer than it should be. And these unseasonable highs have been responsible for the early awakening of much insect life. On today’s wander I spotted several hoverflies and bumblebees, a Brimstone butterfly flew past my house earlier, and the cherry tree outside my window has been buzzing with bees all day. It’s wonderful to see all these critters out and about again but it’s also a worry as winter’s probably not finished with us yet.

190226 hoverfly (1)
190226 hoverfly (2)
190226 bee (2)
190226 bee (1)

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On the scabious

31 Friday Aug 2018

Posted by sconzani in flowers, insects, nature, wildflowers

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

#FloralFriday, bees, British insects, British wildflowers, bumblebees, Devil's-bit scabious, flies, hoverflies, insects on scabious, Lavernock Nature Reserve, Succisa pratensis

180831 devil's-bit scabious (1)

Devil’s-bit scabious (Succisa pratensis) has a beautiful flower that paints the wildflower meadows at Lavernock Nature Reserve in shades of purple lusciousness and provides some very welcome late summer nectar and pollen to a host of insects, particularly bees, flies and butterflies.

180831 devil's-bit scabious (5)
180831 devil's-bit scabious (2)
180831 devil's-bit scabious (3)
180831 devil's-bit scabious (4)
180831 devil's-bit scabious (6)

And that name? Well, the story goes that the devil was not pleased that the plant’s medicinal properties were healing the skin conditions of people suffering from bubonic plague and scabies so, in a fit of rage, he tried to kill off the plant by biting off the ends of the plant’s roots. Ever the party pooper!

180831 devil's-bit scabious (9)
180831 devil's-bit scabious (11)
180831 devil's-bit scabious (8)
180831 devil's-bit scabious (7)
180831 devil's-bit scabious (10)

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On the Bramble

13 Wednesday Jun 2018

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, wildflowers

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

#30DaysWild, #plantsforpollinators, #WildflowerHour, 30 Days Wild, bees, bramble, bumblebees, flies, hoverflies, Rubus fruticosus agg

Last Sunday, on #WildflowerHour, the challenge was to find #plantsforpollinators, i.e. to find wildflowers that support a variety of the insects that act as pollinators. I had found several different insects on Bramble flowers last week so posted a series of photos that showed them. And that gave me the idea for day 13 of #30DaysWild, namely to see what insects I could find on the local Bramble bushes. It was overcast and a bit cooler today, so I didn’t see as many butterflies as last week, but there were bees and bumblebees, flies and hoverflies, one butterfly, and a number of bugs and beetles. Here they are …

180613 on the bramble (1)
180613 on the bramble (2)
180613 on the bramble (3)
180613 on the bramble (4)
180613 on the bramble (5)
180613 on the bramble (6)
180613 on the bramble (7)
180613 on the bramble (8)
180613 on the bramble (9)
180613 on the bramble (10)
180613 on the bramble (11)
180613 on the bramble (12)
180613 on the bramble (13)
180613 on the bramble (14)
180613 on the bramble (15)
180613 on the bramble (16)
180613 on the bramble (17)
180613 on the bramble (18)

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Signs of spring: minibeasts

03 Tuesday Apr 2018

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

bees, bumblebee, flies, hoverflies, ladybird, minibeasts, signs of spring

‘If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.’
~ E. O. Wilson (1929 – ), American biologist, environmentalist, author

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180401 minibeast (4) Honey bee
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180401 minibeast (6) fly
180401 minibeast (7) fly
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180401 minibeast (9) Eristalis tenax
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

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An Ivy bee mating ball

24 Sunday Sep 2017

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, plants

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

bee mating frenzy, bees, bees on ivy, British bees, Colletes hederae, Ivy bee, Ivy bee mating ball, ivy flowers

Some days are just magical! I went out looking for birds – instead I got mobbed by Red admiral butterflies while walking along the coastal path, which made me grin like a Cheshire cat, and then I found these little buzzers.

170924 Ivy bees Colletes hederae (4)
170924 Ivy bees Colletes hederae (5)

They’re Ivy bees (Colletes hederae) and, as their name suggests, they feed on ivy flowers so they don’t appear until early autumn, when most other bees are winding down activities for the year. With an orange woolly thorax and orange-and-black striped abdomen, these bees are easy to identify, though Colletes hederae was only described as a separate species back in 1993 (before that it was confused with two other species of Colletes). Ivy bees only arrived in Britain from Europe in 2001 but have since gradually spread across southern England and in to south Wales: the extent of their spread is being tracked by BWARS, the Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society, so please do log your sightings, either on their website here or with your local records centre.

170924 Ivy bees Colletes hederae (6)
170924 Ivy bees Colletes hederae (7)

I had seen my first Ivy bees for the year the previous week but this new sighting was more special because it was a colony. Though the Ivy bee is a solitary bee (it doesn’t form a hive), a group of females will often excavate their individual burrows and underground chambers together in a sandy bank or similar area of loose earth. And, as the BWARS website explains, male bees often wait by the burrows for females to return and then pounce on them. When the other males spot what’s happening, they also want a piece of the action, jumping on the mating couple to form a writhing mass or mating ball. I was lucky enough to see one of these happen, as shown below.

170924 Ivy bees Colletes hederae (1)170924 Ivy bees Colletes hederae (2)170924 Ivy bees Colletes hederae (3)

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About me

sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

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