I’m featuring yet another plumpie because the photo reminds me of the joy of spring I felt this morning, when the sun emerged brightly and the invertebrates all came out to play. Interesting Bee of the Day is probably the Common Mourning Bee (Melecta albifrons) in my second image, but a rather scruffy, black cuckoo bee on a ragged and fading hyacinth doesn’t exactly raise a smile – especially as it’s my beloved Hairy-footed Flower Bee whose nests it parasitises. Not that either of these individuals will be involved in building or invading any nests, both being males, but there was a female plumpie foraging around the ground ivy in the front garden this morning and I felt a frisson of danger on her behalf, knowing that her enemy is emerging.
I had a 10,000 step day today, and much of that came from repeatedly circling the garden, and then walking around the village, in search of inverts. I did go to the garden centre as well though, my indecisive pottering probably amassing a thousand or so, and R and I also walked along the river from Old Town into Stratford later, when we went out for a light but lovely BTP lunch. By the time we arrived home it was heavily overcast, and shortly after that it began to rain – which was depressing except insofar as it kept me from having to plant two wall shrubs and some patio bedding. Maybe tomorrow. (Or not.)
