17 May 2018
House Wren
SG: A House Wren is busily building a nest in one of our bird boxes.
21 May 2018
Mason Bee
SG: Every year we build Mason Bee boxes, the way Jenny Sheppard showed us, out of milk cartons and rolled tubes of used typing paper. And they work! Every year we watch Mason Bees (also called Orchard Bees) collecting pollen and nectar from nearby fruit trees and building little rooms for their eggs and future larvae in the paper tunnels. This year's cohort of adults is just emerging ready to start the cycle again.
21 May 2018
Andrenid bee
A mining bee, likely in the Andrena genus, visiting crabapple blossoms, and in gathering pollen, ensuring a crop of apples for birds later this summer.
21 May 2018
Nomada bee
SG: This reddish bee was buzzing around the ground in our Old Woodlot. Unable to carry pollen, this bee lays its eggs on food supplies gathered and stored by other bees.
21 May 2018
Andrenid bee
SG: Another species of Andrena, this one collecting pollen and nectar from plum blossoms.
21 May 2018
Andrenid bee
SG: A second photo of the same Andrena, included here because I was fascinated to see how it curled its abdomen around and under its head. Catching crumbs of pollen? More likely transferring a mixture of pollen and nectar to its hairy legs - the better to carry it back to its underground nest.
03-MAY-2018
Chipping sparrow
Another photo of the pretty chipping sparrow whose trilling call can be heard all over the garden (and elsewhere) these days.
09-MAY-2018
Stink bug (Euschistus tristigmus ssp. (luridus)
Hanging out in the willow tree in the Butterfly Meadow. These stinkbugs feed on plant juices.
09-MAY-2018
Green frog (Lithobates clamitans)
Another photo of the green frog shown previously.
09-MAY-2018
Black walnut (Juglans nigra)
The walnuts leaf out later than many other trees, and flower even later still.
09-MAY-2018
Mourning cloak butterfly
Despite the sun and warmth, this was the only butterfly I saw at the garden, which was surprising.
09-MAY-2018
Magnolia
One of two magnolias at the FWG. Although these are not something we would have planted in the wildlife garden (they were already on site when we started the garden), the flowers attract numbers of bees.