Bee cities

The patch is quite rewarding now with summer birds appearing, and insects increasingly part of the fauna. One particular area got my attention today.

It's a common enough sight - a patch of bare earth with a mass of holes and piles of finely tilled earth. I've seen this for the last couple of years and decided to have a good look.

In the morning it was a mass of small bees. I went back in the afternoon with my camera, and saw other things. Firstly, the bees. Here's one forlornly trying to dig a hole

It's quite a tiny bee, and clearly a mining bee, so I think I'm on firmer ground than the bee when I suggest this is a mini-miner. I'm happy to say its probably Common Mining Bee, given that they are, well, common.

In the afternoon there were other different bees. These were even smaller, with bright red abdomens that were only clearly visible in flight. These look like Nomad bees. These are kleptoparasites, and I'm going for Little Nomad Bee, as it is common, and a parasite of Common Mining Bee. Here's a photo of one in flight. Pretty amazing photo too, if I'm honest. It's out of focus, but you try snapping a photo of a tiny bee in flight!

and here's a nomad bee doing what nomad bees do - disappearing down a mining bee nest hole. What goes on down there is, according to wikipedia, as follows "The female cuckoo bee will lay her eggs in the host’s nest and leave. Nomada are known to leave specialized egg structures in the host cell. These eggs are placed into the innermost wall of the host cell, yet there is a lot of diversity among Nomadinae regarding the manner of egg insertion. Some species are known to bury the egg at right angles into the cell wall, while some only partially insert the egg. Nomada may sometimes leave multiple eggs into one host cell, a frequent trait of kleptoparasitic bees. Using their unique mandibles, the parasite larvae kill the host offspring and the conspecific larvae until only one is alive. This larva then steals the host’s allocation of pollen or nectar. "

There were other creatures too - spiders, ants, which I'm thinking are in some way connected with this. It's a pretty amazing thing to think of the lifeforms gathering round this patch of bare earth, and the depths at which life is happening. A veritable insect city, underneath our feet.

Finally a Digger Wasp. We know about these, having had a colony of Ornate Digger Wasps on the patch a couple of years ago. More deep nesting insects, more gruesome life histories. It's all going on.

Farewell to the Impenetrable Forest

I wrote about the Impenetrable Forest here in 2016. It was a small field left to go wild. Over the years a few hawthorn bushes sprang up, then shot up, until it became a dense copse of ten-foot high trees and bushes. A brook runs along the lower northern edge with reeds, so there is some variation. It is good primarily for Warblers, with currently the patch stronghold of Garden Warbler and Willow Warbler, but also Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Blackcap, and Chiffchaff seen regularly. In previous years Sedge Warbler and even Grasshopper Warbler have sang from here. In winter it is good for tits, Bullfinch, Greenfinch, Song Thrush, Redwing, as well as other more regular birds. It is good too for bees and butterflies, with a couple off years ago large numbers of Vestal Cuckoo Bee. Quite an amazing gathering of wildlife, with high density and in spring quite a racket.

But no more. Today I passed the field and saw bushes stacked up, heavy tracks of trucks, and a digger. I went on and chatted to the farmer. He used to grow wheat and barley on it but couldn't get the harvester up the road anymore, so had neglected it. He is putting it back to grass to grow for hay, which he can easily harvest.

It was always an anachronism. Quite odd. It is unreasonable in the south east of England to expect land to be just left, and we should be grateful it is still being used for agriculture. At least now I may be able to see the birds I can hear.

Time to bid a fond farewell to the old birds, and extend a welcome to the new ones.

Ticks galore on the patch.

The patch is pretty much done. Habitat overgrown, a nothing kind of winter, not much chance of seeing anything of note. I only go there now to see common birds in a relaxed way, often much closer than you see elsewhere.

But not so fast! Doing some pruning in the garden (which is in the patch, fortunately), and "chip chip chip!" Here? A quick scan and two green finches have just flown out of the pine tree next-door but one. That's finches that are green, not Greenfinch. 2 Crossbill!! a wholly unexpected addition to the patch and garden list!

I grabbed my binoculars, went and scanned the tree to see if there were any more Crossbills, and whist not seeing any of those a male Blackcap did pop into view! My first ever winter bird on the patch and my first winter bird for at least three years (although I did get them regularly at my old house in the middle of the village).

Suitably inspired I went to Pishiobury Park to look in tall pine trees. I didn't see any more Crossbills but did find a Nuthatch (new for year) and a small flock of Siskins. Odd numbers have been seen in the first winter period but this was the first time this winter I've seen them well. About 10 max I would say.

The finches weren't finished, with a glorious male Bullfinch, a small flock of Chaffinches and about 20 Goldfinches. A Great Spotted Woodpecker, a couple of Jays, and then, to finish, a Snipe flying over the boggy area. Snipe are probably permanent in the northern part of the scrape field but not often seen on the rest of the patch.

5 patch year ticks. 1 patch life list. 2019 patch list is 51 versus 54 for this point last year, but lack of water means well down on ducks.