garden flocks

While I watched a sparrowhawk being mobbed by martins today as it hovered over the garden looking for sparrows, and a humming bird moth on the garden phlox something else caught my eye. Large bumblebees kept on disappearing into the heads of garden phlox (see top photo). On closer inspection it transpired that the bees were feeding from the base of the flower, between sepal and petal tube (see lower photo) rather than from the flower heads themselves. Is this common? I haven't found a reference to this behaviour on some brief internet searches. It would seem to negate the normal method of pollination.

PS I have found a reference now to this behaviour, it is called nectar robbing (see link). The reason it did not come up at first is that this site does not mention phlox. Looking at the flower one can see it has a very long petal tube, and I guess these bumblebees cannot reach the nectar at the bottom, so have to drill a hole in the petal tube... fascinating.

Collies can swim

Photographic proof that some collies can swim! Meg will do anything to get hold of a stick before Harriet and Spot. Most collies we know won't even get their toes wet.

15 in one day 2

It was all getting a bit crowded. Bramble and knapweed have almost stopped flowering, and the meadows are full of devil's bit scabeous. The patches of scabeous were covered with a variety of pollinators getting their last top ups of the summer, drunk with nectar they were very docile allowing this sumptuous aerial view of a peacock.

15 in one day

We saw 15 species of butterfly today on our walk along the Inny, including several more clouded yellows. They always close their wings at rest, but the top picture shows quite clearly the black edging on the upper surface of the wings of these distinctive butterflies when seen on the wing.

a magic day

We went for a walk along the Lynher below Golberdon this morning with Charlie, a young member of Spot's human family. We saw some common blue butterflies, some dragonflies and a hornet, all very interesting, but then we saw 4 kingfishers all in a little group flying towards us and then around the banks before eventually this one perched on a branch above the river.... magic!! This must be the second brood of the year, and the young must have just fledged as the adults usually drive the young away after a couple of days.

Oh, and the joys of mucking about in the river!

in the woods

a lovely sunny luminous morning in Luckett woods