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Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Wed Jul 03, 19 6:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

By this time with any luck they will have produced some queens and be on the decline, so you may find another colony of them somewhere else next year. Very sad people don't like bumble bees. They are usually quite passive, although I did get stung by one once when I accidentally squashed it, and do a lot of good pollinating.

I was working in the log store yesterday and kept hearing a little twitter now and again. I know there has been a nest up in the top where some scaffold poles meet and are padded with a bit of plastic, but it always happened when my back was turned, so didn't see any bird. Guess would be a robin, but they usually come to inspect work.

sgt.colon



Joined: 27 Jul 2009
Posts: 7380
Location: Just south of north.
PostPosted: Wed Jul 03, 19 8:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

It's sad that people don't like bumble bees. Personally I think how can you not? They even look funky.

I used to hate wasps and wondered why we have them, until I went on a bee keeps course and found out all the good they actually do. I now show them love.

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Wed Jul 03, 19 5:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

right now there are about 15 sparrows all at the same time, a mix of friction and care but they are a decent sized population for a bit of feeding and cat resistance

the yard is not cat friendly as several have discovered it is a bit like dover castle, you might get in but that is the start of the problems and in is easier than out which is a nightmare of overhangs and brambles

in the last decade only one has made multiple intrusions until it made a mistake and went away for ever

no dead but quite a few spare lives used up in their one and only visit.

sorry catfolk but our mice and birds have minders , go eat whiskers and cat biscuits and play with a ball of wool

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Wed Jul 03, 19 5:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

the birds and mice have learned to live with their palace guards, sort of, it has not been easy to get hounds to even start to understand pets or wildlife are not vermin stealing the corn

buzzy



Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds
PostPosted: Thu Jul 04, 19 12:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

dpack wrote:
there has been a bee tragedy.

the colony of medium size, rounder than some, stripey white bums that were living in the roof over the road are missing from my bramble and their access hole.

nice people but they are moving so i expect they had a look in the attic. i don't like to ask if they relocated them or if they went for the OPs,
i might react badly to the answer.

at a guess there were a hundred or so in the colony and for 3 yrs they have visited everything that needed pollination over quite a distance

i still have almost as many species but the total number of tongues n tums has dropped by over half


Bumble bee colonies only last one season, so, as long as some new queens survive, and there is habitat for the new colonies next year, you ought not to lose the species. As far as I know the Tree Bumblebee is the one most likely to use man made sites, so perhaps a few bird nest boxes, facing the same direction as the old nest sites, might welcome them next spring. hope it works.

Henry

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Mon Jul 08, 19 5:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

not them , those are the orange pashmina ones, still got the same numbers, i did rescue a fallen birdbox some of those were using a few years back

the ones who lived over the road were quite different.

hence my next post

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Wed Jul 10, 19 7:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

We have finally seen the bird that has been making a row in our garden for a couple of weeks. It is, as we thought, a blackcap, so for once the song ID was right. For a small one, about sparrow size, it has a lot to say for itself.

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Sun Jul 14, 19 2:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

the last 10% of the bramble flowers are blooming, quite a few bee species including a couple of new ones, about half a dozen hoverfly spp so far which is good news for the tomatoes as well, quite a few predators and no major outbreaks of prey.

i saw a very pretty small fly that is new to me, there are a lot of spp that covers but i will try to narrow it down

bird town , the sparrows are mostly 1 and 2nd clutch from this year at the mo, i expect the grown ups are working on clutch 3
some of them i know well enough to think i might understand the family links, there is a family with a tendency to cream coloured bits where you would not expect them which make personal id much easier.
it seems likely that a close look at feather patterns might show up other family sections of the flock.
there is sibling to younger sibling nurture in the family with waistcoats and morning coats and corporals stripes as well as parental care.

there are a lot where a close look at pattern might be useful for id etc but one little brown jobber looks very like another until you compare images with behaviour

the ménage a trois fat pigeons have a child, it has not got the hang of things yet and even though it is supervised etc etc . it may be cat free but it fails to understand why that is and that people can be ok but a pointy nosed thing is not.
at the mo it is gleaning sparrow seeds that fall out of the feeder for them and the sammisons who are a new generation.

ps re bees i have a feeling that they get blonder in the sun over the season, there are some that have been visiting for a while and they have gone from showroom plush to sunfaded upholstery over a couple of months.
could this be correct?
afaik they have one set of adult " fur " for life so it seems plausible.
it would mean that early or late examples could be quite different colours but the same individual.

i dont think bees would care for the comment but one of the orange pashmina ones is starting to look like a Victorian velvet sofa:lol:

Shane



Joined: 31 Oct 2005
Posts: 3467
Location: Doha. Is hot.
PostPosted: Mon Jul 15, 19 5:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Just been watching a pair of peregrines wheeling about in the air between the skyscrapers against a backdrop of the Arabian Gulf in the sunshine. Rather a pleasant way to take a 5-minute break from my computer monitor.

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Mon Jul 15, 19 6:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Yes, a good view Shane. There was a programme on TV over the last few days where they said 'lovely to see a buzzard' and showed a picture of a red kite soaring.

Dpack, butterflies fade, and the worker bees, both honey and bumble work pretty hard, so quite plausible that the furry ones end up looking quite moth eaten.

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Mon Jul 15, 19 1:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

peregrines are ace to watch and far more common in cities that most folk would expect.
very nice screen break.

re the bees not so much moth eaten as developing patina

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Tue Jul 16, 19 6:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I saw a very large bumble bee yesterday, so could be a newly emerged queen looking for a nice place for the winter.

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Thu Jul 18, 19 5:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Went out with the dormouse survey people yesterday and found 3 summer nests in the tubes, up from 1. Also one was occupied, but the occupant legged it when it heard someone approach. They just saw the dormouse shoot our into the hazel bush.

gz



Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 8577
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland
PostPosted: Sat Jul 20, 19 9:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    



sunning itself on a new bench

Jam Lady



Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2501
Location: New Jersey, USA
PostPosted: Sat Jul 20, 19 12:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

The hummingbird feeder holds one cup of sugar water. It needs refilling every third day. And cleaning before refilling. Amazing that those tiny birds consume so much in such a short time frame. I see them but it is not a constant appearance. And only see one at a time as if a second shows up the first one will aggressively shoo it away.

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