Saturday 19 March 2016

Bee activity

The warmer weather has seen an increase in bee activity in my garden.


In particular on the grape hyacinth which are very common in our garden. They have been visited by hoverfly and honey bees (below)








I even saw my first queen buff tailed bumble bee, also visiting the grape hyacinth and also a dandelion flower

I have also seen male and female hairy footed bees

Monday 7 March 2016

Protecting frog spawn from the cold weather

As you will know from an earlier post, the frog spawn laid in my pond back in early February suffered from being frozen at the surface.

Since then many more frogs have returned to the pond and there is now lots of frog spawn.
In cold weather, I lay a black bag carefully over the spawn near the edge of the pond and it is enough to keep the water and spawn from freezing

Saturday 5 March 2016

Peacock butterfly

The first peacock butterfly in my garden this year. It was actively flying around before I manage to get his photo as it rested on a bag of garden rubbish (waiting to be recycled).
Peacock butterflies hibernate in the winter. They hibernate because of a lack of food (flowering plants also become dormant) and warmth, butterflies are cold blooded.

When the butterflies are dormant, their bodies use very little energy.