Mid April 2018
Over the past couple of years I've been paying more attention to bees, albeit still struglling with Andrena ID. As we start to plant up the garden I was keen to get some Lungwort (Pulmonaria) to try to attract Hairy-footed Flower Bees. We bought a couple of pots of it, and two days later the bees had arrived! Hopefully I will be equally successful attracting a Convulvulous Hawk Moth with my Nicotiana plants. Here the yellowy male is shown coming to our lavendar (photo taken through the window), and the black female is shown having come to the moth trap!
The period of warm weather meant that I made some after work diversions into Waterloo Park on the way home, where some of the flowers were out and attracting insects. There were lots of Hairy-footed Flower Bees there too, along with Orange-horned Nomad (Nomada fulvicornis) and a lovely female Tawny Mining Bee.
Also seen were Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock and Comma butterflies, Melanostoma scalare (a hoverfly) and Bibio johannis (a fly related to St Mark's Flies). Last year I always thought I should pay more visits here, based on the spring I should definitely keep them up into the summer.
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