Daylight robbery

I have seen bumblebees robbing nectar from comfrey flowers before but as far as I remember I haven't seen this behaviour from solitary bees.  Nectar robbing is when a bee takes nectar from the flower through a hole bitten in the side rather than entering normally and offering pollination, especially a bee with a tongue too short to reach the nectary.  I suspect the holes were made by bumblebees and the others were just taking advantage.  This is a Buff-tailed Bumblebee

and an Early Bumblebee.

A Common Carder Bee was doing it properly.

This was earlier in the week on the comfrey in the corner of the kitchen garden.  The most numerous bees were male red mason bees.

They were also patrolling the flowers in the vain hope of finding a new female.  In reality all the females are busy provisioning their nests and the males don't have long to live but that didn't stop them challenging and knocking each other off the flowers.

Female red masons were also robbing, obviously getting just nectar here and collecting their pollen elsewhere.

The most surprising to me was a nomad bee, a cuckoo that lays its eggs in solitary bees nests (usually mining bees).

It all goes to show that sometimes crime does pay.  You can read more about the biology of nectar robbing here.

The bilberry bumblebee

Also known as the mountain bumblebee (Bombus monticola), I think this is our prettiest bumblebee.  These were foraging on willows in Northumberland this week.  The photos are a bit grainy because the light was poor just before (more) heavy rain but I was very pleased to see them.  I think these are all workers as they were quite small compared with nearby queen white-tailed bumblebees.

These images from the iRecord website show the upland distribution, usually in areas with bilberry, hence the name.  In fact B. monticola also likes willows, gorse, heather, clover, bird's-foot-trefoil, devil's-bit scabious, etc.  My photos were taken just south of Rothbury.

Out and about in April

It has been a good month for seeing birds in my garden, mostly under the feeders just outside the kitchen window.  The most exciting sighting was a male brambling.  It was only here for a day but I saw it several times throughout the day. By now I expect it is back in Scandinavia or in northern Scotland waiting for a favourable wind for the crossing.

The siskins turned up at the end of March and have been here every day since.  I see at least two females and at least two males but never more than four together.  There may be only four.

Blackcaps arrive from Africa every April and they turned up on time again this year.  There have been two singing males in the copse.  Twice I caught a glimpse of one opposite the front door when I didn't have a camera ready.  The good news is that once when I was waiting with a camera a female turned up, attracted by the song.

I think blackcaps must nest in the garden every year but once the singing stops in May I don't see any sign of them until the youngsters emerge in the summer.  I have never seen an overwintering blackcap but I hear tell of them not far away.  Maybe one winter mine will stay.

Another April visitor every year, but from much closer by, is a male reed bunting.  This one probably came from the nature reserve just north of here.  I expect there isn't much to eat there in April.  Interestingly I have never seen a female here.

Tree sparrows must be well advanced with their nest building.  They can have two or three broods in a season so they need to start early.

I noticed a couple of odd-looking stock doves last month.  This one has scorched-looking primaries so I sent a photo to the BTO and their expert commented that it looks like a genetic or growth problem, which doesn't add much.  The bird seems well.

This one probably has avian pox virus.  It mostly affects tits, sparrows, dunnocks and starlings.  I haven't seen any other affected birds so it probably isn't anything to be concerned about at this stage.

The sparrowhawk still visits regularly but I rarely see it sitting now.  One one occasion it perched on top of the finial on my gazebo after an unsuccessful attack for just long enough for me to get a distant photo.

The dry weather has been tough for birds that rely on earthworms and other soil invertebrates.  Very early one morning I saw this oystercatcher on the golf course opposite the kitchen window, taking advantage of the fact that the greens have been watered.  The oystercatchers arrived to take up their nest sites on the roof of a building across the road in February.  I hope to see one foraging in my garden again in the summer.

The easing of lockdown has meant we are able to travel farther but the cold weather hasn't encouraged expeditions, mainly because the spring is delayed.  In Northamptonshire at the beginning of the month I saw hairy-footed flower bees (Anthophora plumipes), such as this male,

and tawny mining bees (Andrena fulva), such as this female.

At home I saw my first red mason bees (Osmia bicornis).  This male is investigating a hole in the dead sycamore.

This female is sheltering from the cold in the bee house but hasn't started building a nest yet - not here, anyway.  She is adopting a defensive posture, with her middle leg raised, because I have opened the side.

Also in the bee house on the same day was a sleeping queen common wasp (Vespula vulgaris).

At Belsay Hall I saw red-tailed bumblebees (Bombus lapidarius),

whit-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lucorum),

buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris),

and common carder bees (Bombus pascuorum).

Also at Belsay I saw blue tits and great tits taking nectar from a very fragrant rhododendron.  I have seen blue tits with pollen on their faces before but have never witnessed this behaviour.

This April may not have been the cruellest month but it was cold and dry.  There was a little bit of rain in the last four days but overall rainfall was very low.  And it was the frostiest April for 60 years.

May isn't starting off much better.  Spring so far is quite late so it will be interesting to see what effect that has on the natural world.

Out and about in March

Not so much out and about really as we have been in lockdown until a few days ago.  When I did get out for a walk in the woods I met a frog coming the other way.  It wasn't in the mood to give way so I had to, after taking a photo on my iPhone.

A surprise sighting in the garden was a male pheasant, the first I have seen since my regular visitor used to come to the door every morning over three years ago.  He was here two days in a row but may not become a regular.

I doubt if I shall see much of the sparrowhawk from now on.  He was here a lot in March but in previous years the sparrowhawk has disappeared at about this time of year, probably to join up with a mate in a chosen breeding territory. This one is still looking very handsome.

I managed to squeeze in my Bumblebee Conservation Trust Bee Walk in the brief warmth on the last day of the month. I saw only 12 bumblebees but of five different species.  Then when I got home there was a garden bumblebee (Bombus hortorum) in the garden, appropriately enough.  This was also taken on the iPhone.

I heard a chiffchaff in the garden, unusual for here and the first sign of a summer visitor.  I hope the first blackcap will be here soon.  This has been a very disappointing winter for visiting finches.  I haven't seen a brambling or a redpoll but I have recently seen male and female siskins on the feeders.

March felt to me cold, dry and windy, much as March should be, I suppose.  In fact the Met Office data show it was warmer than recent (1981-2010) average.  Perhaps it felt colder because of the wind.  The Met Office maps don't show wind speed.