Ivy Bees

I have been trying to convert my front lawn into a wildflower meadow over the last two summers. This year I gave it a mow in the first week of September and it was immediately colonised by solitary mining bees.

Ivy Bee, Colletes hederae, on the spoil heap of excavated soil from its burrow. Thanks to Steven Falk for the identification.

 The whole lawn is covered in similar little patches of excavated soil.

My garden is on the edge of the South Downs, and the soil is chalky. There appears to be a layer of sand under the front lawn, no doubt a relic of the building site when the house was built.

One of the burrows. Each adult may be feeding 3 or 4 larvae.

The lawn is sloped and faces the south. The bees are particularly active on warm sunny days. I assume the warmth helps speed the development of the larvae, which will then attempt to hibernate as adults. I have several large patches of ivy in the garden, which I have deliberately left to flower. Hopefully they will help sustain these bees.

Garden

Insect life in the garden is still busy at the end of September.

Carder Bees

An ichneumon wasp, Pimpla rufipes. An autumn flying species, up to four can get stuck in the greenhouse at one time.

Lullington Heath

I think this is a Rose Chaffer beetle, Cetonia aurata, which spends two years as a larva and up to a year as an adult.

Specked Wood

A species of orb-web spider

Beech woodland, just south of Lullington Heath

Male Common Darter

Birling Gap

Juvenile Goldfinch

Sovereign Harbour

Grey and windy.

Cormorant

A few fishing boats work out of the marina.

Turnstone

Sanderling, which I initially identified as a juvenile Grey Phalarope.

Sandwich Tern

Juvenile Herring Gull

Lakenheath Fen

Lakenheath Fen is a fantastic RSPB reserve in Suffolk.

 Great Tit

 Giant Puffball

  Gadwall

 Greylag Geese

 The reserve lies along the south bank of the Little ouse river

 Greylag Geese

 Kingfisher

 I think this is a female Ruddy Darter

 Grey Heron

Mute Swan

 Goldfinch

 Greylag Geese

Hobby

Birling Gap

A large group of crows in pursuit of a Buzzard (bottom left).

Several Buzzards

Rosebay Willowherb going to seed.

Wheatear

Campanula glomerata

Buzzard

Sparrowhawk