Roy has sent me some pictures and video from the camera in his blue tit nest box. The box was put up earlier this year and its first family has already fledged! The photograph shows the last three birds waiting to go. I very nearly bought a camera for one of my house sparrow boxes. […]
Join Sally and I for the 4G Bird Watch. What birds are using your garden or have made a flypast. Almost no rules! All we want is a list of birds in your garden (estimated numbers or maximum count) seen or heard. Add a note if you have nesting or have seen fledged birds or […]
There was an old lady who swallowed a fly [fill in the rest yourself!] She swallowed the cow to catch the dog, She swallowed the dog to catch the cat, She swallowed the cat to catch the bird, She swallowed the bird to catch the spider, She swallowed the spider to catch the fly; […]
In my post More about Mason Bees I gave the name of the bee species as Osmia bicolor but it should have been Osmia bicornis. Apologies for that. It has been changed on the website but not before it was sent out in other formats. It would be really good to find Osmia bicolor as […]
The mason bees (Osmia bicornis) in our garden are still active with the female bees provisioning their mud cells with pollen. In my last post I said that there did not seem to be much sexual selection going on – as I released a female she was immediately grabbed by a male. But I have […]
Alan has sent me this list of moths that he has caught in his moth trap this year. The chances are that if you do not have a moth trap yourself you will never have heard of these species before. If you do know about moths then you will know most of these, as they […]
One of my entomological heroes is the Frenchman Jean Henri Fabre (1823-1915). He was not a great explorer, collector or taxonomist – he simply watched insects and recorded the details of their behaviour. He spent hours, sitting on the ground under the hot provencal sun, watching bees and other insects going about their daily lives. […]
Derek, one of our group members, visited the RSPB reserve at Northward Hill. No, not recently but over 50 years ago in the 1960s! As a young lad, Derek had persuaded his father to take him (by bus!) to see the herons. They were met by this very distinguished gentlemen wearing a tie and breeks […]