Time to get the camera out againAnd spread some joy

[user 11159]

couple of fields near me..

 

[enrico]

couple of fields near me..View attachment 39524

Wow, ours is all fully open and rich in scent

 

[user 11159]

you can smell them as you walk up to the mill .might be the never ending wind and rain .i like the smell ..

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

April: sun, showers and earlier flowers.

Just in case you zoom in to read the text, it says: Life begins the day you start a garden. (Chinese proverb)
We put up a number of these for an open garden day last year.

 

[Erichalfbee]

View attachment 39565

April: sun, showers and earlier flowers.

Just in case you zoom in to read the text, it says: Life begins the day you start a garden. (Chinese proverb)
We put up a number of these for an open garden day last year.

That’s wonderful. Are the bees getting out?

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

That’s wonderful. Are the bees getting out?

I'm not able to (legally) go into that orchard but in the traditional orchard nearby where I walk the dogs and have lots of hives, the bees are on the flowers and flying enthusiastically - when the sun is out. I reckon the warmth of the sun ('apricity' again ) is about 5-7 degrees above the air temperature.

 

[user 11159]

right next to osr.....

 

[Nannysbees]

Enjoying the Montana

 

[user 11159]

cool night...

 

[Antipodes]

Galahs making quick work of cotoneaster berries.

 

[Garry R]

Hope you can open this. I made a rough and ready bee hotel during the early spring which attracted this wasp and caterpillar (and loads of solitary bees). It was so quick I had to take a quick snap hence the fuzziness. Probably never get another chance. Hope this works as I was messing about with the file to enlarge it.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Tiny little thing.

 

[Aneebe]

I finally managed to video a ? chocolate mining bee - this is just a screenshot and a shot clip of her entering home but I can post footage if anyone wants to see her walking about. I'm so lucky to have a few hives in the grounds of a council run historical house and garden - a beautifully preserved Victorian farm house and grounds (Garry here may remember it as he once lived only a mile or two away).
It's a bit shady for a site but worth it as it's my little playground where I can potter and just enjoy the place AND it gave me an OSR crop last year.
The original boulder banks of the "big house's" lane are of course the perfect sites for nesting solitaries so I took a stroll a few days ago and sure enough there were a number of girls bringing in pollen.
I feel SO lucky to have access to this spot. I think the council workers thought I was a wee bit mad as I gabbled to them about what I'd found!
Ps has anyone seen a northern colletes bee? I see they are supposed to be out on the N Coast of Antrim over the summer so I shall have to have a bee hunt.

 

[JamezF]

chocolate mining bee

So that's how they get the holes in Aero bars!

James

 

[Aneebe]

So that's how they get the holes in Aero bars!

James

Lol BOOM BOOM and the first time I heard that name I had to fight a mental image of tiny insects wearing hard hats and shouldering picks down a Cadbury mine.

 

[user 11159]

just can not beat living in the sticks...

 

[Steve7962]

Just found this thread, thought I’d contribute with a few pics taken last summer.

View attachment DSC_0399.jpegView attachment DSC_0394.jpeg

 

[Nannysbees]

Enjoying the rambling rose

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

Plum, oak and hawksbeard cosying up together. Mostly the plants are left alone here (apart from grass cutting a couple of times) so you get some interesting juxtapositions.

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

Honey bees can't get enough of campanula. The weird combination above it in this picture is campion and hazel (Harry Lauder's Walking Stick) which I cut at ground level because it had outgrown its space. I thought that would be the end of it so this partnership is a delight.



It's not easy to get a picture of a bee on campanula. They dive headlong into each flower. This is the only one which is not of a bee with its bum in the air.