Saturday 29 March 2014

Buzzards and goldfinch

The Buzzards are a regular occurrence whether they pass relatively low or are tiny dots in the sky, they always. 

The goldfinches are very active with courtship and very vocal and visible. I have noticed several pairs so far.

Monday 24 March 2014

Great tits and bees

My garden is now alive with live. All the spawn has developed into tadpoles. Lots of birds are active and very vocal.
Great tits are frequent visitors to my garden and their 'see-saw ' call echos from other gardens.

This one has a meal, looks like a spider.

Queen bees, buff tails and red tailed have been visiting the garden for a few weeks, looking for nest sites, this one is visiting the rosemary 
Honey bees  are visiting in large numbers, this one is on grape hyacinth

Red Kite

Great sighting of a red kite over my garden. I was alerted by the raucous swirling herring gulls which usually heralds the passing over of a buzzard (which has become increasingly common).
I was expecting a buzzard as being the cause and was delighted to see stunning bird of prey circling quite low but gaining height. 
The Red kite slowly drifted in a northerly direction towards the South Downs

I have only seen a red kite over my garden once before, back in May 2009
http://urbanwildlifejottings.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/painted-lady.html

Red kite are making a very good comeback in Sussex and the UK, but they are still a rare sight over Portslade

Saturday 15 March 2014

hairy footred bee

Male  hairy footed bees have been visiting the pulmonary plants for a couple of weeks now. This is the first female.

Monday 10 March 2014

Peacock butterfly

The first peacock butterfly in my garden, sunning itself on the rockery. 
This beautiful butterfly with its mimic eye spots over winters as an adult