Sunday 14 June 2015

Bee Roe Flower (and burnt cakes)

I spotted a colony of Tree Bumblebees in a tree in the Magic Garden, high up in an old woodpecker’s nest. This is the first parish record of this recent  immigrant from Europe and only the second local colony I have heard of (light was so poor it’s really just a picture of a hole but they really are in there!).



This same dead tree is also home to these King Alfred’s Cakes (or Crampballs) fungi.
 
 
If you are into bushcraft these fungi are great for making fires as, once dried, they take a spark and burn slowly and can then be applied to tinder.
The fen area of the garden attracted this buck Roe, the only species of deer we get in the parish, which effortlessly jumped the double garden/field fence before running for cover. There are small populations of deer both to the north and south of the main road but given the lack of woodland cover in the parish they are surprisingly elusive.



The other morning as I was rushing for work I saw the first garden Bullfinches since the winter. They were feeding on the seeds of Geranimum phaeum and even made graceless attempts to imitate fat hummingbirds to get the higher seeds.

 
And finally to continue my popular long-running series of poor-quality long distance shots of birds… this Little Egret was on the Swale the other night with a good show of its ‘aigrettes’

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