#30DaysWild - Day 7 - Bee spotting

Today I decided to start learning my bees, so whilst I was watering my plants after work, I decided to try and grab my camera to photograph the visiting bees (whilst avoiding them with the watering can). I got the 'Field Guide to the Bees of Britain and Ireland' by Steven Falk and Richard Lewington for Christmas, so have been meaning to re-teach myself to use a dichotomous key to identify the three species I managed to photograph.

The first, I already knew as I help to keep honeybees at work, the dainty Apis mellifera sampled all of my newly added bee friendly plants.

The second I knew was a bumblebee, but had no idea on the species, it was so small and incredibly furry. Using my guide, I think I have now identified it as an early bumblebee, Bombus pratorum.

The final bee was a buff-tailed bumblee, Bombus terrestris audax. This bumblebee was exhibiting behaviour I have seen a few others take part in too. Rather than entering the flowers of the aquilegia, instead it appears to be taking nectar from the long 'horns' at the back of the flower, seemingly without damaging it. This surely can't be beneficial to the flower as no pollen is collected. I think I need to do some more research into this.

#30DaysWild - Days 5 & 6 - Strumpshaw Swallowtail

RSPB Strumpshaw Fen was fabulous today. Last year, we spent a long time hunting for swallowtails and saw one from quite a distance. Today, there was one large, beautiful individual a stone's throw from the carpark and reception hide.

The swallowtail was close enough that I could really get a perspective of how large these butterflies actually are. Completely unphased by the number of photographers, some of whom were getting rather close to it, it stayed in the same spot for a long time. According to other visitors, it seemed to have a penchant for all things pink and red - including peoples' bags and shoe laces!

Whilst we were watching the elegant swallowtail, a shout of "otter!" went up from the reception hide. We all rushed over to be greeted with the sight of an otter bobbing its head in and out of the water. This is the first time I'd seen an otter in over a year. We were doing well - we'd been at Strumpshaw for all of 10 minutes and had already seen enough to keep us more than happy for the rest of the visit, but it didn't stop there.

Someone overheard us talking about Norfolk hawkers, another insect that we've spent a fair while looking for in the past. Every time I spot a brown hawker at Strumpshaw, I get my hopes up that I might spot those tell-tale green eyes, but never have. However, the kindly visitor who overheard us showed us to a spot where he'd seen them earlier in the day. Out of almost nowhere, a Norfolk Hawker appeared, hunting ever closer until it was nearly over our heads. It was in no mood for settling down for a photo, but very glad that we've finally seen one.

I had some doubts about our next 'big find' of the day, but I believe (thank you for your confirmations, people of twitter!) that the dragonfly below is a scarce chaser. According to my 'Britain's dragonflies' guide, this is a species which is near threatened on the red data list, but locally abundant in a few places in East Anglia.

After seeing two dragonflies which I can now 'tick' (if I had a list), we then spotted their arch nemesis, the agile and hunting hobby. We watched as it scythed through the sky, occasionally catching it's russet underside against the bright sky, over the place we'd been watching the Norfolk hawkers.

These are, of course, only a handful of the wonderful species we found at Strumpshaw, a full list can be found below:

Mammals:
Otter
Chinese water deer

Butterflies:
Swallowtail
Brimstone
Red admiral
Small white

Dragonflies:
Norfolk hawker
Brown hawker
Scarce chaser

Birds:
Marsh harrier
Hobby
Swift
Coot
Mute swan
lapwing
Mallard
Jackdaw
Reed bunting
Reed warbler
Cetti's warbler (heard)
Wren
Tree creeper
Black bird
Robin
Chiff chaff
Chaffinch
Wood pigeon

Being back at work today, I've settled for my 'random act of wildness' being the walk from my car to my class room. I felt truly lucky to work in such an idyllic setting this morning. All I could hear was bird song - the continuous and impressive song of the skylark travelling across the nearby fields, the attention grabbing song of the chaffinches in the trees and the beautiful, almost purring 'tzveeee' songs of the green finches. A wonderful start to the day.

#30DaysWild - Day 4 - Bee friendly

I got impatient today. A couple of months ago, I sowed various varieties of wildflowers in trays (Sky lupin, field scabious, primrose, cowslip, bugle) in the hope that, by now, I would have a number of plants to scatter around the border. How wrong I was; the only plants that seem to have successfully germinated so far have been the lupins, but even most of those have been eaten by slugs. I currently have five of these surviving, but they are too small to risk planting out yet.

I do already have three honeysuckles, a lavendar, two sedums and a few cosmos, but only the cosmos are currently in flower. So, I decided to go and buy some pollinator friendly plants as a ready source of nectar. I was pleased to find the following in my local garden centre:

Scabious (pink mist)

A cultivated variety of scabious rather than the wildflower I was trying to grow, it is still very attractive to pollinators - within minutes of planting out, bees were already visiting the pretty pink flowers. This is a good plant for this time of year and it should continue flowering until the first frosts (fingers crossed).

Geranium (cranesbill)

An actual geranium rather than the plant type that everyone calls 'geranium'. Again, a cultivated variety, but still seems popular with the bumblebees.

Polemonium (Jacob's ladder)

I have to admit that I had never heard of this variety of plant, but just liked it (and it had an RHS perfect for pollinators logo). After doing a bit of researching in hindsight, it also seems that, as well as being a good source of nectar, it is a food plant for some caterpillars. 

The bumblebees were a little fast to photograph, but this little solitary bee (I think?) was very obliging, posing on a few different flowers. If anyone can help with a species specific i.d. I would be very grateful.

#30DaysWild - Day 3 - Sketching

I ran a revision session at work this morning and the weather was drizzling again. When I returned home, I walked through the park opposite our house and revelled in the scent of the wet soil. The hawthorn trees are in full blossom and the huge oak tree is a beautiful deep green. 

Later on, I found time to illustrate one of my nature diary entries from the last couple of days; one of our very cute pied wagtail fledglings, of which we have now seen three.

#30DaysWild - Day 2 - Insect hotel

Today's wildlife mission, between the spells of drizzle and rain, was to install our recently purchased insect hotel. We might have missed the period for red mason bees (they've already decided to nest in the plastic tubes above our doors), laying their eggs and filling the entrances with mud. I am, however, hoping we might have put it up in time for leaf cutter bees during the summer months. I'd love to be able to sit and watch them taking segments of leaf, stuffing them into the entrances.


I've also planted some sweet peas to run up an arch that we inherited with the house. Hopefully the slugs won't eat them over night. I have taken some advice and scattered egg shell around the base of these young plants, which apparently will discourage the numerous slugs and snails.

Finally, when I was taking these photographs, I heard a stock dove in the neighbourhood for the first time. Their call is much more subtle than wood pigeons or collared doves. Maybe they'll be the next visitor to our wildlife garden.

Excitingly, my 30 Days Wild pack arrived in the post today - I'll definitely be wearing my badge proudly!




If you like the look of the bug hotel, it is called 'Elegance' and can be found on the RSPB website.

#30DaysWild - Day 1 - Wagtail fledglings

This is my first 'official' 30 Days Wild, and I'm hoping to write something every day about my random acts of wildness. Birds are where most of my knowledge lies at present, but I would like to use this month as an opportunity to develop my invertebrate and plant skills. I've always been obsessed with dragonflies, but have never mastered the art of identification. I also really want to teach myself more wildflower names and to identify at least a few species of bees. I do not think I will become an expert in only 30 days, but I'm hoping to make a good start. Saying that, Day 1 has begun with my comfort zone, although I am going to blame the weather for that!

The very un-June-like weather caused us to abandon our grand wildlife plans of venturing to Lakenheath Fen today, but our developing wildlife garden did not disappoint. As I've mentioned previously on my blog, we have recently moved house and now have a garden. Gradually, we are hoping to transform this into a wildlife haven. So far, we have several bird feeders which we brought along from our old flat, and a newly added bird bath. The shrubs and plants I am growing and planting should attract lots of beneficial insects eventually. Birds are our main visitors at present, with some new additions today. Even if the weather has not been spring-like, the bird behaviour certainly has been. We've had two pied wagtail fledglings in our garden for most of the day, either foraging themselves, or chasing one of the parent birds for food. They've been wonderful to watch and have been fairly trusting when we've needed to be outside. They're even more welcome if they are, as it appears from the photo below, feeding on slugs. I'm hoping we'll see more fledgling birds in our garden as the month develops.

Pied wagtail parent feeding a fledgling what appears to be a slug.

Foxley Bluebells 2016

1st May - Foxley Wood

Spring is absolutely my favourite time of year, so it seemed fitting that on 1st May, I saw my first swallow of the year whilst on our way to see one of my favourite wildlife spectacles. The usually very private ancient woodland at NWT Foxley Woods bursts into life at this time of year, the vast sea of bluebells attracts so many visitors that it is impossible to get into the car park (there are usually a maximum of three cars when we visit). It is wonderful that one of nature's great events interests so many people.

I try to visit the bluebell woods every year - it's starting to be how I know spring has arrived. In addition, I love the assault on the senses that being in a flourishing bluebell woods brings. The perfume is extraordinary when it first hits you. New to me, though, were these white bluebells that we spotted - according to a quick google search, these are quite rare morphs of bluebell which lack the blue pigment (and I'm really hoping aren't a hybrid with the Spanish bluebell).

There were so many other signs of spring whilst visiting the bluebell woods. There were, of course, many other beautiful and subtle spring flowers; wood anemones, bugle, violets (although I am struggling to identify the species of violet...); and bees making the most of the bounty of nectar.


There were other invertebrate signs of spring too, comma and peacock butterflies would obligingly pause and sun themselves, whilst I also saw my first beefly of the year. These small and furry insects, with their absurd-looking proboscis always excite me in spring, although I never can quite figure out why.