A Bit of A Bee Day

With the weather not knowing what it was doing, I thought I'd stay at home and have a go at identifying some of the bumblebees that were collecting pollen from the Purple Loosestrife. No sooner had I photographed a few and come indoors, than the heavens opened up and the rain began to fall. Such timing!

But I did manage to photograph 3 different species and spot a Honey Bee, which flew off before I could photograph it. It must have sensed the rain coming.

The Bumblebees were mainly Early Bumblebees (Bombus pratorum) and Red-tailed Bumblebees (Bombus lapidarius), plus a single Shrill Carder-bee (Bombus sylvarum).

Early Bumblebee, Bombus pratorum

Early Bumblebee, Bombus pratorum

Red-tailed Bumblebee, Bombus lapidarius

Red-tailed Bumblebee, Bombus lapidarius

Shrill Carder-bee, Bombus sylvarum

Other things of note from the back garden were 100+ Starlings, most of which were juveniles. They landed on the neighbouring houses and Leylandii before something spooked them and they shot off.

Two of the 100+ juvenile Starlings

Also about were 5 Goldfinches (2 pairs and a single bird), a pair of House Martins that were passing through, 3 Carrion Crows, 2 Pied Wagtails, 11 House Sparrows, 3 Wood Pigeon, 13 large gulls with certainly 5 Lesser Black-backed Gulls in amongst them, a Greenfinch and a pair of Swifts. A Small Tortoiseshell was also noted, but wouldn't  land and instead flew back and forth from my garden to the neighbours.