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

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.

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

hairy footred bee

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

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

Tortoiseshell Butterfly

A queen bumble bee, probably buff tailed, visited our garden briefly.

A small tortoiseshell butterfly visited our garden several times during the day - settling on the Hebe.

I have seen red admiral butterflies on a few occasions this year, but this is the first tortoiseshell.