Vestal Cuckoo Bee

A good day which started with a few hours of data entry, and then a quick trip to Ben and Sarah's house to give advice on a plumbing problem. They have done so well with their decorating - I was particularly impressed with the kitchen which was fine but slightly dated when they bought the house. They've completely transformed it with paint and wallpaper - they just have to remove the current flooring before having new flooring laid in a few weeks time. We then popped into B & Q to get the requisite plumbing part and a few other bits and pieces that we needed, and managed to pick up a few annuals to fill in bare spots which were on sale at 10p!

I spent the afternoon with a small group of volunteers at Bainton, monitoring one of the local protected road verges. Although the garss growth has been very vigorous this year, we still found plenty of good species including Pyramidal orchid, Tall Broomrape, Wild Liquorice, Wild Onion heaps of Field Scabious, Greater Knapweed and Common Knapweed. There wasn't much chance to stop for photography - sadly I didn't take my long lens so couldn't photograph the four rather distant Brown Hares in a harvested field, but just enjoyed watching them peacefully pottering around.

After almost continuous greyness, the sun came out in the evening, so I went into the garden to see what insects were about. Bumblebees dominated - male bees are now very obvious, and tend to be easier to photograph as they are less busy than the workers. Vestal Cuckoo Bee seems particularly lazy, and this male didn't mind having a lens poked at it at all!

Later in the evening we realised that the injured pigeon we've been caring for was not in her usual roosting place - she had free access to the garden and we suspect that she stayed out too late and was taken by the fox. Poor Persephone...