First of the year

This spell of warm, sunny days is encouraging the emergence of many insects. This morning I spent some time watching Hairy-footed Flower Bees patrolling the flower beds. This species is dimorphic - the males are covered with golden-brown fur, have long hairs on their hind legs and have rather Boris-like blonde hairs on their face. The females have jet black fur on their bodies, but orange-red hair on their hind legs (see extra). Both males and females tend to fly fast and low, zig-zagging through the foliage, but they particularly like to visit the flowers of Lungwort Pulmonaria, and your best chance of seeing one closely is to stand by a clump of this species. They will also visit related flowers such as Comfrey, Green Alkanet and even Forget-me-not. They often nest in the soft mortar and exposed cob of old walls but will occasionally nest in the ground, preferring bare compacted clay soils. 

In the afternoon I was delighted to see the first male orange-tip of the year, flying round the patio. It spent some time wandering round the garden, only pausing briefly to sun itself on a dying daffodil, and to sip some nectar form the flowers of Honesty. I'm not sure I've ever seen one quite so early in the year - my earliest photograph from previous years was taken at the end of April.

Today's exercise involved a brisk walk to Thorpe Wood, though I must admit that I lingered awhile among the sweeps of Wood Anemone and Primrose, spotted a few early flowers of Bluebell and Wild Garlic and enjoyed the blossom of Crab-apple and wild Cherry. Plenty of Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell and Comma butterflies were also out enjoying the sunny rides - it looks as though it's going to be a good spring for these species, that have had quite a tough time in recent years.