Nurturing Nature and The Wild Gardener BBC2
The Wild Gardener The Wild Gardener is to be shown on Friday 19 Nov at 8 pm on BBC2 and programme 2 on the following Friday. There are now 4 programmes. In it, the presenter Colin Staford-Johnson, (who specialised in filming big cats besides working on the BBC series...
Gasteruption jaculator and the hylaeus bee battle!
Gasteruption jaculator and the hylaeus bee battle inside a nurturing nature nest box Since having common yellow face bees (Hylaues communis) nesting in my nest boxes, the alien-looking Gasteruption jaculator is a regular visitor with numbers increasing as the common...
Silent Earth by Dave Goulson- my book review
Prof Dave Goulson's new book 'Silent Earth'- My Review How do you write a review of a book that is packed full of so many facts, which as an environmentalist myself, I find interesting and to be honest, worrying? It is a powerhouse of information. So I decided to go...
Fork tailed flower bee, Anthophora furcata checking out a Nurturing Nature nest box
Fork-tailed flower bee (Anthrophora furcata) Although I have had the hairy-footed flower bee (Anthrophora plumipes) in my garden feeding upon lungwort,(Pulmonaria) I have not seen the fork-tailed flower bee here at all. It's obvious when you see the hairy-footed...
Manchester City Training Ground for pollinators and biodiversity by idverde UK
A Premiership for wildlife and ecology! Earlier this year, I was invited to visit the Manchester City Training Ground being shown around by Karl Horne, the idverde UK biodiversity advisor and his supervisor Daniel Lewis. The area is managed for wildlife by idverde UK...
Passaloecus wasp? with cached aphids for her larvae inside her nest
Solitary wasp as an aphid pest controller! Don't spray your plants to be rid of aphids. Leave it to the natural aphid controllers. Not all wasps sting us! In fact, most do not. They never show any interest in humans whatsoever. Yet they have such a bad name because a...
one side of one Nurturing Nature nest box 3/7/21 with bee 3 species
Megachile ligniseca, Osmia leaiana and Hyleaus communis share the same side I could have selected another side or another nest box, but to be honest, this was the nearest to me and it was raining! We have a newly started Megachile ligniseca, the woodcarving bee, with...
Why don’t Ectemnius wasps nest inside a Nurturing Nature Observation Nest box?
Ectemnius solitary wasps Although there are several species of Ectemnius solitary wasps in the UK, like other wasps, including social wasps, they provide protein in the form of insects for their larvae to feast upon. Ectemnius wasps are out and out hunters of...
Common yellow face bee blowing nectar bubbles film
Common yellow face bee (Hylaeus communis) blowing nectar bubbles film I was fortunate enough to film this bee a Hyleus communis, in action on a hot sunny day. I did think that the bees would just blow one bubble and let it hang in the air to evaporate the water....
From wildflower meadow to compost
From wildflower meadow to compost using the HOTBIN I have been making compost since the mid-1980s and yes I absolutely love it. From composting flowers disposed of by a local crematorium that otherwise went to landfill to making compost from vegetables and weeds at...