Hairy footed Flower Bee !

 Hairy-Footed Flower Bee (Anthophora plumipes)

This intriguing little bee first came to my attention last year when I was studying the Bumblebee's visiting the Flowering Blackcurrant (Ribes sanguineum)  in our garden.

And here we are once again after another successful breeding season.

Like a miniature Bumblebee, its their fast darting flight which usually attracts your attention, then as it slows down to hover in front of its selected nectar source, you have a window of opportunity to study it before its off, It appears very restless, there are only a few flowering plants at this time of the year so competition for the available nectar sources must be high.

I first noticed these Bee's in the garden a few weeks ago which ties in nicely with their emergence date of late February to early March, apparently the brown coloured males emerge first, closely followed two weeks later by the black coloured females. They have a single flight period which stretches from February/March to late May, no longer than three months, a very short life span, probably why they fly around so fast, time is short!

  They can be quite aggressive to other Bumblebees visiting the shrub, especially if they meet on the same flower, I watched a male see off a much larger Buff tailed Bumblebee, like a fighter plane buzzing a bomber, their speed and agility in the air is quite staggering. They are of course just defending their chosen territory in the hope that they can mate with a visiting female.

Male Hairy footed Flower Bee

Once the female has mated  nest building  can begin, this  usually occurs in the soft mortar of an old wall, although they are known to nest in the ground.

The female excavates a single burrow which can end in up to six to twelve oval cells, before sealing the cell the female deposits a supply of pollen, lays a single egg on top and seals the cell with soil or mortar, job done.

Female Hairy footed Flower Bee

Both male and female bee's develop into fully grown adults by the end of summer, they remain over winter in their sealed cells until the following spring, where they emerge once again.

I am yet to find one of these burrows, I suspect they are nesting in my neighbour's old brick built garage close to the flowering blackcurrant, its nice to see them once again.

March around the Pear tree !

 21st March officially the first day of spring, although the 'met office' are implying that most people now consider the 1st  March as the beginning of spring.

21st is good for me.

The flowering blackcurrant in the garden is nearly at full bloom, the Bumblebee's are starting to visit, the first Bumblebee to visit was an Early Bumblebee worker  (Bombus Pratorum) closely followed by a queen Buff Tailed Bumblebee fresh out of hibernation.

Early Bumblebee worker

Buff Tailed Bumblebee queen

Not much has changed on the Birds around the garden, Goldfinches  are visiting in good numbers throughout the day and appear to become more tolerant of human activity. Chaffinchs have become very common, although their numbers seem to fade as the summer months draw near. The occasional Greenfinch is always a nice surprise as they are rarely seen in our garden.

Greenfinch

The Blackcap that has been with us  through the winter months still visits the garden, it has become less territorial and totally ignores the other birds on the feeders much to their relief I suspect.

Blackcap

We now appear to have a pair of Robins that have adopted our garden, hopefully they will find somewhere to nest,  a pair of Blackbirds have been seen gathering nesting material in the garden not sure if they are nesting within the garden. Other birds  have included Blue Tits , Great Tits and the occasional Long Tailed Tit.

Blue Tit

The male Sparrowhawk still trying its luck at ambushing the birds around the garden, fortunately unsuccessfully at the moment

Activity around the fish pond is increasing, several Common Newts have been seen, along with a mass of Frog spawn, which I must disguise, before my wife realises what she is looking at.

Looking forward to some proper spring sunshine.

The Bee's are back in town !!!

Its now the beginning of March, not quite spring yet, but the sun is shining, crocuses are in full bloom around our magnolia tree, and I have noticed for the first time this year, some insect action around the open flowers.

Last year I managed to get my head around BumbleBee identification, seeing most of the more common ones around the garden, thought I would try the same with Bee's this year.

Identification is not going to be so easy with these, on account of there being so many similar species.

I think this is one of the species of Adrena Mining Bees, but this is where it gets difficult, because of the sheer number of species.

I have narrowed it down to possibly 'Andrena Flavipes' or the 'Yellow Legged Mining Bee'.

These Yellow legged mining Bee's are usually the first to appear in early March, these Bee's are apparently 'Bivoltine' which means simply, that there are two generations, the spring generation are flying from March to May and the summer from June to September.They are also suppose to be quite common here in the south of the country, so that all fits.

The photographs are not really clear,but you can just about make out the yellow  hairs on the legs of this individual, which could make it the male, the hair on the females legs are denser and more prominent.

Confusingly, Honey Bees can be very similar in appearance.

The more I look at the photographs, the more I doubt my identification, 

I can say with some certainty its definitely a Bee, and its nice to see them back around the flowers collecting pollen.

 I think I need a close up of this one for a more positive identification, unless someone with more knowledge can shed some light on their identification.

Little Owl !

I first came across this Little Owl site back in 2012, and have seen Little Owls here for the last four years, I was curious to know why I have never witnessed any successful breeding attempts, so after a bit of research, I think I have made sense of the erratic sightings.

The Little Owl begins its mating season in early February and ends as late as May, this ties up with the reappearance of the Little Owl where I usually see it within the wood. This is more than likely the male.

The male Little Owl patrols his territory and calls, partly to fend off other males from his territory but also to attract a mate. I have never heard this Owl calling, so maybe an earlier visit is needed.

Once a potential mate makes contact, pair bonding begins, this includes the Little Owl flying in pairs and sitting in the same tree, I have only once in four years noticed two Owls together in the same tree.

The next stage see's the female making a begging calls to her partner, which prompts the male to feed her prey that he has captured, this is important because it indicates to the female that there is enough to food in the area to support reproduction.

As the pair bond strengthens, the couple begin nest site visiting within his territory until a suitable nest site is chosen by the female.

And this is probably why I have never seen any signs of successful breeding at this potential nest site, the female not finding it suitable, to be fair the site is fairly near a woodland trail where dog walkers pass by, I suppose the disturbance from dogs doesn't help.

 I would love to know where the other  nest sites are though. here are a few images I have managed to capture, over the last few years.

I live in hope that a female will one day find this nesting site suitable.

The Virtue of Patience !

One of the deciding factors for a trip to Rainham RSPB for me,
 is the fact that its a very short car journey, less than 15 minutes if there are no traffic jams, which means more time for bird watching and enjoying the marshes.

Today was not one of those days, the removal of the Dartford Tunnel toll booths and the subsequent road alterations was causing a traffic nightmare, and to make matters worse as I sat in the stationary traffic I realised that I had forgotten my binoculars and flask of coffee.

The weather forecast had given me just a small window of opportunity until mid afternoon, when heavy rain was expected, time was slipping by.

I eventually reached the tunnel, feeling slightly agitated now that I had made a wrong decision to come this way, but there was no turning back, and as I exited the tunnel into Essex, the sun suddenly broke through the gloom, I could feel the tensions slipping away.

A walk through the woodland trail was uneventful, but as I reached the woodland feeding station there was a good selection of birds feeding, I decided to make myself comfortable on the bench, a cup of coffee would have been nice, but the sun was shining and for most of the time I was alone undisturbed.

All the usual suspects were there, Chaffinch, Blackbird, Collared Dove, Great tits, Blue Tits were flying in snatching some food and flying off again.

This was my best attempt at a Blue tit in flight, 

they are just too fast.

I was trying to photograph the birds before they reached the feeders, I much prefer photographs showing the movement of birds.

but I'm still finding this very difficult.

Lots of Reed Buntings,with a few Robin and Dunnock feeding on the fallen seed around the base of the feeders.

Reed Bunting ( female)

Reed Bunting ( male)

Dunnock  ( Hedge Sparrow)

A Small group of Greenfinch seemed more hesitant in their approach,  but finally flew in to feed.

As I sat watching these birds flitting about in all directions, a movement at the back of the pool caught my eye and the hint of a white tail feather disappearing into the reeds, a possible Water Rail, more likely a Moorhen. I decided to sit and wait in the hope that it was a Water Rail, and that it might reveal itself again. Luckily there was plenty of avian action to watch.
Eventually after a long patient wait another movement in the reeds finally revealed the bird , a Water Rail in all its glory, and it walked out into the open area right in front of me.

It fed for a while around the feeders picking at the fallen seed, it must of caught sight of me, startled, it made a mad dash for the reeds and disappeared.

Content with this sighting, I moved off for a very pleasant walk around the marshes.

Little Grebe pairing up.

Teal

Drake Pochard

 Just made it back to the car as the first drops of rain began to fall, ironically, the journey back through the tunnel was clear and quick.

Winter Blackcap Revisited !

It's been a long time now, in fact not since the winter of 2013 has a Blackcap been seen in the garden,
 that's not to say that it's not been there, just not noticed.

So in the last few days of January 2015, coinciding with a particularly cold snap, there it was, early in the morning feeding on one of the apple halves I had placed on top of the feeding station, a fine male Blackcap.

 It's been around the garden now for the last few days, which leads me to believe that's its food source has become very scarce. 

It's become very protective of these apples, it's almost as if  its set up a territory, because it will not tolerate any other small bird near its food supply. The strange thing is that apart from the Blackbird and Starlings, which it sensibly stands aside for.

 No other small bird is really interested in the fruit, but its still determined to drive away the finches and Tits that are trying to feed on the sunflower hearts close by, and these are not even trying to compete for the fruit.

This aggression has led to Chaffinches being chased back to the pear tree, Goldfinches and house Sparrows scared off the sunflower heart feeder and an aerial skirmish with the local Robin. You can just make out the Blackcap at the bottom of the picture.

Attacks can come from all angles.

Its  been three days now and the Male Blackcap still spending most of the day around the apples.

Blackcap has become extremely aggressive, driving all small birds from the garden, this Goldfinch was feeding on the sunflower hearts which the Blackcap was not happy about, and its not even feeding on the sunflower hearts.

As I was watching the Blackcap guarding his apple, a movement in the ivy next to the patio window caught my eye, a female Blackcap, very shy, made no attempt to approach the apples or the male.

Even after removing the remains of the apple skins the Male Blackcap still reluctant to relinquish its food supply.

Day 5 and the male Blackcap arrived at the apple just after daybreak, where its been most of the day. 

Had a lucky escape as the local male Sparrowhawk fence hopping along the gardens arrived on the fence, surprising all in the garden,

including me.

 the Blackcap made a hasty retreat.

While watching the Blackcap, I was hoping the Wren might make an appearance, but no more sign of it, I did catch a glimpse of this Long tailed tit feeding on the Pear tree.

As this day draws to an end, as I glanced out the window, the blackcap was back again, looking very cold and fluffed up like a ball.

Its been interesting watching it these last few days, I was quite surprised how aggressive its been for a small warbler.

Hope it makes it through the winter and returns to its breeding grounds, probably back to Germany or there about.

Frozen marshes !

It had been a bitterly cold night, the lowest recorded temperature for this winter so far at  -9 deg Celsius.
The weather forecast was looking good for the day though, beautiful clear skies with some winter sunshine, there was a light covering of frost on the vegetation, a good day for some winter bird photography.

As I pulled up at Rainham RSPB, the car park was full, everyone else seemed to have the same idea, many armed with long lenses. My usual instincts at times like this is to walk the other way, but I was in desperate need of some fresh air and to walk the marshes, so I stuck with it.

I begun by walking around the woodland trail, this female Blackbird was busy feasting on the last remaining rose hips, other birds noted were Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Long Tailed Tit.

The Kingfisher had found some open water near the bridge, I felt very guilty disturbing its search for food on this cold icy morning, when most of the waterways were frozen.
 I did not linger and passed by quickly.

The woodland feeding station was manic with birds flitting about in all directions, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Dunnock, Chaffinch, Reed Bunting, Blackbird and Collared Doves were all noted.

This Chaffinch and Robin looked like they were suffering from the effects of the cold night, and were still trying to warm up.

Several Dunnock were feeding around the boardwalks.

A couple of Brown Rats under the feeders, were being admired by the gathered photographers, any other time, people are usually take avoiding action.

The walk through the marshes was exhilarating, lots of birds distant on the frozen pools,

but no sign of the Water Rails, although they could be heard hidden in the reedbeds.

Stonechats were stationed all around the reserve, managed to capture one in flight for a change.

Several Blue Tits were dismantling the Reedmace heads, a shame they were not Penduline.

I sat in the Purfleet hide for a while, watching the Wigeon on the frozen pool.

These Wigeon had flown from the marsh after being spooked by some unseen foe, only to find the  relative safety of the pool  frozen, they seemed very unsure of themselves.

And finished the day with this Moorhen, strutting out on to the ice, panicking, and trying to run across the frozen pool.