Frog spawn and bees

A few frogs have returned to our pond. I have heard croaking at night the last few days

Some come from further afield and it is probably the frogs that stay in  our garden all year round that have arrived first. 

The first clump of spawn appeared this morning.

The first bee in our garden this year, a honey bee visiting the crocus on our rockery.

Fox activity

I was just about to eat breakfast when I heard a sound like some one climbing our wooden fence. I opened the curtain and looked out the window and a few seconds later a large fox rushed past and jumped through the gap in our neighbours fence. I moved the curtain and looked out the conservatory door and another smaller fox was on the flint wall.  This was probably a female (vixen) and the larger fox a male (dog).

I rushed upstairs to get a better view of what was going on. The vixen disappeared over the north wall. The dog fox was in the gardens behind ours.

Several times it ran up the steps and back into the garden. After a while it jumped the fence into the next garden. It crossed the garden and jumped onto the flint wall and appeared to be following a scent trail.

The fox then jumped down into the next garden and I saw its tail disappear over the next fence before I lost site of it, 

Red mason bees

One of my favourite solitary bees, red mason bee Osmia rufa are nesting in our garden. Last year I received a bee hotel for my Birthday at the end of May and placed it out in June. It was not successful that year, but I did have a few red mason bees visit my home made bee hotel in the front garden.

I noticed the red mason bees mating (again) on the wall at the front of our house earlier in the year. This is a link to the red mason bees mating last year http://urbanwildlifejottings.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/red-mason-bees-mating.html

I first noticed red mason bees visiting the bee hotel on 26th May this year. The flight period for this small bee is late March to early June. It may be a bit later this year due to the poor weather earlier in the year.

Since then I have enjoyed the coming and going of several bees who have used the bee hotel to nest.

Normally, mason bees will nest up high in small gaps and holes in bricks and buildings, which is where the 'mason' in their name comes from.

The female makes a series of cells with soft soil and packs each cell with a paste made of pollen and nectar, which will feed and nourish the single larvae in each cell. The female does not have pollen baskets, but carries it on the underside of her body.

When completed, the female blocks off the entrance with a soil plug

These are fascinating bees to watch and I would definately recommend anyone to have a go. At the same time you will also be helping bees. Red mason bees are particularly useful in that they pollinate fruit trees such as apple.

One day I watched two bees that behaved quite oddly. It was almost if they had forgotten which hole they were nesting in.

One bee wouild lay in wait and chase of this other bee as it landed. There are cuckoo bee species that lay their eggs in other bees nests, but these both looked to be red mason bees.

To date, nine of the nesting tubes have been used and pluged with mud. Two others still have bee vistors

My home made bee home around the front of the house is also being used by red mason bees.

There are many other species of solitary bee that visit our garden, so hopefully the bee hotel will attact other bees.

Red tailed bumble bee nest

As well as the fascinating solitary bees, we also have a red tailed bumble bee nest in our garden. They are nesting in a hole in the side of the workshop, which I guess goes into the cavity between the walls which is filled with insulation.

Red tailed bumble bees are also very important pollinator species, including soft fruit. They are a common visitor to our garden, but it is the first time I have noticed them nesting.

Large Red Damselfly

Over the last few weeks the Large Red Damselfly Pyrrhosoma nymphula have been emerging from the pond in our garden.

They are now beginning to pair up and lay their eggs on the pond vegetation (many blogs over the last few years). These two are resting on a garden plant.

Crow eating slowworm

A carrion crow has been visiting our bird bath in thr front garen, to drink and to soften food such as bread. they appear to be nesting in tall trees inagarden about 100 meters away.

Today I found the remains of a slowworm in the bird bath, mainly head and skin, which was probably the same crows.

Back in 2009 I made a blog entry about magpies eating slowworms, link below.
http://urbanwildlifejottings.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/magpioe-eating-slowworm.html

hairy footed bee

This is a old (and worn out) male hairy footed  bee visiting the comfrey in the twitten by my house.

You can see a comparison in the blog entry 19th April