Sea gull neighbours

For teh last few years I have been following the herring gull nest sites that I could see from our garden. One on a chimney behind our garden and a roof top seen from teh front garden.

This year another pair of gulls have moved in behind our house, 2 houses away from the original pair.

 This morning they were mating on the conservatory roof in the garden behind ours.

Later one of the gulls, probably the male, came foraging in our garden.

Gulls rarely come into our back garden as its so small and requires almost a vertical take off to get back out.

Returning to the roof top with a mouthful of grass

Ant nest

Ant nest on our rockery - ant larvae tended by worker ants

Foraging great tits

Great tits have been very vocal in the neighborhood

Today two great tits visited the garden, searching in all the flower pots and tubs

They hunted in the cotteneaster, finding tiny green caterpillars

The also found food in the shrubs and next door neighbours tree.

Early bees nesting

Early bees have started to nest in the hole in the shed

Last year red tailed bumble bees nested inside

Red mason bees nesting

Several red mason bees have been visiting the bee hotel the last few days.

These bees pair up (they are solitary rather than social) and lay their eggs in special cells constructed in the hollow tubes in the bee hotel.

The red mason bees carry mud to make then cells and deposit and egg and food in each.

They will eventually block off the end of the tube protecting the eggs until next spring when the new adult bees will emerge.

Bees visiting my blue berry bush

Bees are very active in the garden now. Over the last few days I have noticed 4 types of bee visiting the flowers on the blue berry bush. I have not managed to see what bees visited in earlier years.

 This solitary bee was the first bee I noticed, not sure of the species, many are very hard to distinguish (250 UK species in total)

 This is a red mason bee. This species nested in my bee hotel last year and they are just beginning to be active again this year

 A queen red tailed bumble bee

A common carder bee