I was a bit discombobulated this afternoon when I realised that not only are the ivy bees out, but some of them – like this little male – are old enough to be quite worn. The mad weather we’ve had this summer has evidently brought their season on early, and as this is the last major species of the year to emerge I now find myself staring along the tunnel of autumn towards the long, dark winter. Or as I tend think of it, the invertebrate off-season. You’d think I’d be used to this by now, but every year it seems to hit me harder.
As I was walking back to the house from the ivy hedge I noticed the fresh queen Common Carder bumblebee in my second photo sleeping on a perennial pea flower. My photographic attentions woke her up, and the first thing she did, before starting to move around, was to exercise her prodigious tongue. I dare say she wasn’t actually yawning, but that’s very much what it looked like to me.
R: L2, C11, D15.
