nature notes II

[wigginhall]

I find that bees have seasons; earlier in the year, we saw a lot of bumble bees, but today the allotment was full of honey bees.  I don't know enough about them to say any more; but I am thinking about butterflies, whose great season is August (apart from a few early ones such as brimstone). 

Something interesting I noticed locally - I saw a magnolia flowering for the second time.  I don't know if this is the sunny weather or not.  It's odd to see flowers and leaves, as usually magnolias just have flowers first.

[Diarthrognathus Josteyn Ward]

I had a second crop of flowers on my plum tree, which have started to turn into fruit... The first flowering were all destroyed in a hail storm, which did for all the fruit trees in the area that day.

[SweetPea]

I find that bees have seasons; earlier in the year, we saw a lot of bumble bees, but today the allotment was full of honey bees.  I don't know enough about them to say any more; but I am thinking about butterflies, whose great season is August (apart from a few early ones such as brimstone). 

Something interesting I noticed locally - I saw a magnolia flowering for the second time.  I don't know if this is the sunny weather or not.  It's odd to see flowers and leaves, as usually magnolias just have flowers first.

Glad to hear you've been seeing plenty of bees, Wiggs. Re butterflies, I've seen an awful lot over the last few weeks in one particular place, that is mostly wilderness. Can't believe how, this year, all the wild grasslands about and beneath hedgerows have gone berserk. It has to be all the rain, and mild spring that we had, this year.

[wigginhall]

The trouble is, that honey bees are not usually wild. 

[Enki]

Here, in East Yorkshire we've had perfect growing conditions.. plenty of rain, plenty of sun, warm.. unlike last year when we had little rain during the growing season. Onions, carrots, parsnips, runner beans, beetroot all doing well.

On a different note, good numbers of butterflies at the moment..ringlets, meadow browns, tortoiseshells, gatekeepers etc. but very few whites about.

Saw a couple of treecreepers today on my local patch, first for the year for me. Lovely birds, always busy finding insects as they circle round tree trunks.

About the rib. Yes, I'm cycling and dancing again, but carefully. Apart from getting comfortable at night, everything's okay. Thanks for asking, SweetPea.

Incidentally, while cycling I regularly come across bees in the road, which are alive but seemingly unable or unwilling to fly. Are they traffic casualties?

 

[wigginhall]

I keep finding bees in the road or on the pavement, just sort of sitting there, but not dead.  I don't know if they have just emerged or are about to die or what.  We try to rescue them, and they will crawl onto a twig sometimes.

[Diarthrognathus Josteyn Ward]

Bees don't live long. The honey bee spends its early life looking after brood, and the rest foraging. The death of a bee normally occurs out of the nest/hive.

If the weather has been unusually hot or dry, then you might save a life by giving a little water or putting the bee in the shade with some flowers, but in general, they live a short and busy life, then die of exhaustion.

[Enki]

For those interested:

A pair of bee eaters are breeding on the Isle of Wight. Only the third recorded time they have bred in the UK. Unmistakable and very exotic looking birds.

[Samuel]

Just been on a fantastic dusk/evening walk round some hills and holloways near me. Fabulous to see the countryside in such unfamiliar light. Fields of wheat became snow covered hill sides. The arching hazel and ivy over one holloway made it feel like walking down a badger set. Made all the more real after briefly meeting one crossing our path. The last section - called Hell Lane - lived up to its name. Treacherous underfoot, uncertain in direction, inconsistant in character. Then, after being emersed so in dark wildness it turned suddenly, brutally, into a Tarmac road running on past houses and farms. So jarring it took a few hundred yards to adjust. Might try a bit more of this night walking.

Anyone else get up to this sort of thing?

[Enki]

Sounds fascinating, Sam. and, I agree, the countryside takes on a whole new atmosphere at dusk and dawn. It reminds me of when I have waited for nightjars to start churring in Suffolk,

Also I once did the Lyke Wake Walk, an interesting experience as we set off in the dark.

[Enki]

For those interested:

The pair of bee eaters on the Isle of Wight have fledged four young. Also, a pair of glossy ibis were displaying and nest building in Lincolnshire, but that is as far as it went. On my own patch a pair of montague's harriers bred, producing one juvenile. It's been quite a year for 'exotic' species.

[RobM]

For those interested:

The pair of bee eaters on the Isle of Wight have fledged four young. Also, a pair of glossy ibis were displaying and nest building in Lincolnshire, but that is as far as it went. On my own patch a pair of montague's harriers bred, producing one juvenile. It's been quite a year for 'exotic' species.

A good year.  Such a shame about the Black-winged Stilts at Cliffe in my home county. Four young hatched but none survived the first few days.

[Enki]

Passenger pigeons were once one of the most numerous birds in North America. It was a migratory bird which lived in enormous flocks. However hunting this species for food(often used for slaves and the poor), and mass deforestation led to a catastrophic decline in the 19th C.  100 years ago, the last known member of this species, a female called 'Martha', died in Cincinnati Zoo in Ohio at 6 p.m. on September 1st 1914.

Our only migratory dove in the UK is the turtle dove, and it is rapidly declining. For every 20 doves we had in 1970, there is now only one. The bird's UK extinction as a nesting species is a real possibility.

[wigginhall]

I've been watching the shield-bugs on the allotment; they are now a nice shade of bronze, much darker than their summer bright green.  I think they will hibernate soon, but there is still a bit of time to see these ace insects.  Notice the lovely diamond-shaped panel on their backs, the scutellum, I think, which sometimes looks rather sparkly; it's party party party time!

[Rhiannon]

Saw a very reddish tailless squirrel yesterday. Very strange.

[L.A.]

Saw a very reddish tailless squirrel yesterday. Very strange.

Are you quite sure it wasn't a guinea pig ? 

[OH MY WORLD!]

The Black and the grizzly bears have been coming into the city lately. And last week they shot to death a mountain lion that was hanging around the doors at one of our hospitals. There was a big outcry about that. We don't understand why wildlife officers couldn't have tranquilized the kitty and just moved it into the mountains like they have been doing with all the bears.

The flock of grouse that visit my yard for seed everyday is healthy. It was down to two birds this spring and now I have counted 18 of them.

[floo]

At one campsite in Alberta, I think it was, where our daughter and family had parked their RV, there was a warning about grizzly bears and rattlesnakes. They didn't see a bear, but they did see a rattlesnake.

[cyberman]

The Black and the grizzly bears have been coming into the city lately. And last week they shot to death a mountain lion that was hanging around the doors at one of our hospitals.

What? The bears are shooting the lions? Aw, c'mon, that's not fair - they've got to leave something for the hunters.

[OH MY WORLD!]

Fish and wildlife officers dearest Cyber, fish and wildlife officers. I just took for granted that you would know that bears don't use guns, I do.

[OH MY WORLD!]

Monarch butterfly pop. growing!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/monarch-butterfly-population-rebounding-after-record-low-1.2786440

[floo]

We have lots of butterflies in our garden, and I saw a Monarch earlier this year. I don't think I have seen one before.

[OH MY WORLD!]

I've never seen one floo. I did see a hummingbird for the first time in my back yard about a month ago. It checked out all the red flowers in my yard and a one point it came under my red umbrella and hovered very close to my face. For a second I thought i was about to be attacked by a killer humming bird. But it was just checking out my red umbrella, chairs and table. I need to have some flowers that they like for next summer. I was pretty excited about that visit.

[floo]

I've never seen one floo. I did see a hummingbird for the first time in my back yard about a month ago. It checked out all the red flowers in my yard and a one point it came under my red umbrella and hovered very close to my face. For a second I thought i was about to be attacked by a killer humming bird. But it was just checking out my red umbrella, chairs and table. I need to have some flowers that they like for next summer. I was pretty excited about that visit.

How lovely, it must have been exciting to see one.  The UK doesn't play host to those birds, I don't think. Birds flock to our garden bird table, lots of robins, starlings, sparrows, rooks, magpies and tits. We sometimes have birds of prey sitting on the garden fence, kestrels, buzzards and sparrow hawks. My next door  neighbour told me that when she was looking out of her bedroom window last week at about 10.30pm she saw a barn owl sitting on out fence, sorry I missed it.

We have a small wildlife preservation area behind our property, so this no doubt means we get a plentiful supply of wildlife. However I could do without Mr Ratty, who inhabits our garden. I HATE RATS! He waits for the birds to drop things onto the ground from the bird table for his delectation and delight. If I see him from the window I yell at him to go away. Before doing so Mr Ratty defiantly sticks two whiskers up at me! 

[RobM]

I've watched to Monarch butterfly migration at Point Pelee in Ontario. It is amazing.