BUMBLE BEE OR NOT ?

We have 24 species of bumble bee in this country and five of the commonest may already be around.  We also have more than 200 other bee species - mostly solitary.

You may have noticed some rather large bumblers in your garden visiting flowers.

This one was buzzing round our kitchen so I captured it with a glass and a piece of card.

not the clearest photo, I'm afraid

Before releasing it outside I tried to identify it.  At this time of year it is almost certain to be a queen.  The workers all die off in the winter but the queen hibernates.  In spring she must build herself up with nectar and pollen before building the first foundations of a nest.  The first eggs she lays will be the pioneer workers, who are much smaller, and will take over the foraging and nest building duties.  The queen then settles down to a life of egg laying

 I'm pretty sure that this one was a buff-tailed bumble bee (Bombus terrestris) queen.

Another one to look out for at this time of year, especially if you have lungwort (Pulmonaria) flowers in your garden, is the hairy footed flower bee (Anthophora plumipes).  This species is a solitary bee, not a bumble bee.

Photo: BWARS

The males are ginger but the females are black except for their hind legs.  This species likes to feed on the flowers of  lungwort (Pulmonaria), comfrey, ground ivy, dead nettles and primroses.

PUSSY WILLOW

 The male flowers of the pussy willow or sallow are a great source of pollen and nectar food for early spring insects, especially bees.

Roe deer

In their paddock in Abbey Lane, not far from Filnore Woods, Jo and John Moe have a trail camera set up.

A recent pair of visitors were this roe deer couple.

You can see that the male or buck has antlers covered in fur because they are still growing.  Strangely one antler seems to be bigger than the other.  Perhaps the smaller one will catch up.

Did you know that the original Bambi in Felix Salten's book was a roe deer, not the white-tailed deer of the Disney film.

PINK AND PURPLE

Growing in short grass, the pale pink flowers of red dead nettle are topped with an array of purplish leaves.

As the flower spikes extend the leaves turn green.

 'pink, pink, pink' is also the perky call of the pink-breasted male chaffinch. 

photo: wildaboutgardens

(More about the chaffinch's song proper in a later post)

 

Mundy Rooks

One of the hybrid black poplars on the Mundy Playing fields recently fell down and was sawn up and taken away

Maybe this has made the rooks wary because usually in previous years all three poplars contained rooks' nests - up to fourteen.  But this year one of the poplars has only five nests . . .

. . . while its partner tree has two mistletoe clumps, and loads of of bright red catkins but no nests.

Looking again I saw that the neighbouring ash tree had three nests - maybe for the less aspirational rook . . .

. . . and at some distance one of the large oak trees was starting to get built up.  Two pairs of desirable rook residences in separate neighbourhoods.

 What makes them choose one tree or section of a tree rather than another, I wonder.

It's like Poplar Avenue, Ash Mews and Oakleaze Road.

WOW

On the first three days of March we welcomed students from the occupational therapy course at UWE as volunteer workers at Filnore Woods.

This is part of their training called WOW, Widening Occupation Weeks, where they visit various enterprises to do something different from the exams they have just taken and the placements they will be going on.

On the first day half of them did coppicing while the other half did a great job clearing the former cowshed area and then raking up the cut grass below the viewpoint.  The rain started about 3.30 pm just as they were finishing.

The weather on the second day was almost continuous rain.  This group finished off the raking, slipping and sliding on the slope.  Although very cheery and hard-working, they were so cold and wet by lunchtime that we sent them home.

On day three more coppicing was done, producing a nice lot of bean poles and hedging stakes, 

. . . and a dead hedge was constructed with the waste material.

Thank you WOWers.

 

WILD PLUM BLOSSOM

If you have come across blackthorn blossom already . . . .

. . . . it's probably not blackthorn but one of the many wild plums.

There are no thorns, the flowers are bigger and whiter, and blackthorn flowers up to a month later.

HUNGRY BIRDS SING

 Just inside the main entrance to Filnore Woods there is a picnic bench (made by local craftsman Richard Jessop), 

and over it a young oak tree (formerly squashed flat by the vehicles of the men who replaced the overhead cables about 15 years ago) and in the tree . . . . 

 . . . . somebody has been kind enough to hang a bird feeder with fatballs in it.  While I was there today there was a lot of bird activity - great tits mostly.

First thing on a spring morning, when it's still dark, the birds postpone foraging for food and sing to their rivals:

 "This is our territory, we have survived the night and we're still here, so peck off the rest of you."

If they didn't sing, the rivals would move in and take over the territory with all the food it provides.  Once the sun comes up they stop singing and get foraging.

This happens mostly in April and May when nestlings have to be fed and food is at a premium.  

The Dawn Chorus.

SO . . . there will be a free Dawn Chorus Walk at Filnore on Monday 2nd May starting at 5.00am prompt.😲

Meet by the field gate on the far side of the Leisure Centre car park.  I'll be leading it and helping you to identify birds by their songs.  Here is a link to the CPRE dawn chorus page, with songs and calls of nine of the birds we shall hear.

Come on - you can get up early for once to hear birdsong at its best.

CELANDINE

The first golden stars of spring showing on Valentine's Day. 

Wherever you see the heart-shaped leaves you can expect a starry display now we are in March.