Wool carder bee, nesting and mating behaviour

Wool carder bee, nesting and mating behaviour

Ladies first! Here I will explore the Wool carder (Anthidium manicatum) (Megachilidae: Anthidiin) females’ behaviour, nesting etc. and then go on to the males. Unusually for solitary bees, female wool carder bees, are smaller than males and females...
Hairy yellow-face bee nesting inside Nurturing Nature nest box

Hairy yellow-face bee nesting inside Nurturing Nature nest box

Hairy yellow-face bee ( Hylaeus hyalinatus) I am assuming that this is the species! She nested inside a common yellow face bee (H. communis) nesting cavity. Looking at the BWARS site and Falk’s book ( links below) along with her two ‘shoulder...
Slow worm (Anguis fragilis) a first for my wildlife garden

Slow worm (Anguis fragilis) a first for my wildlife garden

Slow worm (Anguis fragilis), or legless lizard. A first for my wildlife garden. Today I saw something moving on one of two steps which lead to my garden. Lo and behold it was a slow worm, a first for my wildlife garden. I could see it was trying to climb the step to...

Goldfinches, sunflower hearts and wastage

Goldfinches, sunflower hearts and wastage- what can you do? Like many people, I have been feeding sunflower hearts which attracted a lot of goldfinches to my garden. I noticed a huge increase in wastage on the ground underneath the feeder. Not only can this be...
How do you stop wood pigeons from using a bird feeder?

How do you stop wood pigeons from using a bird feeder?

How do you stop wood pigeons from using a bird feeder? Wood pigeons are now commonly seen in many gardens as they bully other birds away from the food whether it’s on the ground, on a table or in a bird feeder. They almost ‘hoover’ up wastage from...
Attracting Garden Pollinators by Jean Vernon-my review

Attracting Garden Pollinators by Jean Vernon-my review

I suspect that most people when we talk about pollinators, simply think about bees, whether bumblebees, honey or solitary bees. They may not be aware that there are many other pollinators of flowers which they did not consider as pollinators. This book explains what a...