Well the bees would give our 'wild flower' nectar bar the thumbs up if they had thumbs! Yesterday the area was buzzing!
The phacelia is the most popular at the moment. These bees were too involved in foraging to bother about me and my camera but the bumble bees were so excited that they just wouldn't stay still!
It wasn't just the bees stopping for a drink - the butterflies approve too. Unfortunately I haven't seem many different varieties yet in spite of the buddleias being in full bloom.
The white butterflies always home in on the plot though so the netting over our brassicas is earning its keep.
The bees however will always be welcome and I hope we're doing our bit to help them through the dreadful summer.
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Fantastic photos again, Sue! I had a chuckle about the "bitterflies" - presumably popping in for a swift pint. I saw a small blue butterfly yesterday, but not close enough to be able to identify which type. Mostly I have just Small Whites.
ReplyDeleteOops - my editor missed that one - now I've changed it. It was apt though wasn't it? I've seen a couple of gatekeepers, a tortoishell and a comma today and masses of large whites testing our our defences. I even got a shot of a bumblebee but haven't looked to see if it is blurry or not yet!
DeleteSome lovely shots Sue. I must say it's nice to see the butterflies out after such horrible weather...mind you we could do without the cabbage whites!!
ReplyDeleteI'd just like to see far more butterflies Tanya - other than the whites of course!
DeleteLovely photos. My Echinops flowers are absolutely covered in bees at the moment. Here's hoping they build up their strength for the winter!
ReplyDeleteThey love thistly flowers don't they Debbie? They love the cardoons on our plot but the flowers haven't opened yet and being about 8 feet off the ground I doubt I'll get to see much of their foraging
DeleteNice pics Sue, are you using a DSLR to get those, or something a bit less posh?
ReplyDeleteLess posh Lee. I have a Panasonic Lumix DMC ZS3 which I have had a while. I bought another Panasonic DMC FZ100 and expected the older camera to be no longer used but it is still better than the newer camera for close-ups as it has a built in macro zoom. I bought a macro lens for the newer camera but the older one with the macro zoom is quicker to autofocus etc. I set the camera to burst which takes 11 shots a second to compensate for the movement but still tend to have lots of blurry images to dump. The newer camera is great for landscapes and has a better telephoto lens to they make a good team.
DeleteOh we are doing as much as we can for them here in our garden. They love the verbena bonariensis and the Cambridge scarlet monarda to name just a few, and the butterflies love the first one I mention as much as the bees and they love the butterfly bushes as well. We have a lot more bees this year than the two years previous so let's hope they continue to thrive. The earliest and first plant in my garden covered with bees...Mourning Widow Geranium. Looks great all year but the nectar in spring is prized so would recommend that to any who wonder about early nectar plants for bees.
ReplyDeletePhotos are awesome Sue!
We have the verbena in our front garden. I grew some from seeds ages ago and had them on the plot. The ones in the garden were plants that I found about the plot and tranferred. I hope they self seed so I get more.
DeleteThe bees need all the help they can get don't they Bren?
Amazing - the bees were out in force in our garden yesterday too, and Em took some pictures of the bees AND put it into a 2x2 picture frame like yours above... uncanny! I'll have to post it sometime soon so you can see - that last shot of yours is amazingly detailed.
ReplyDeleteGreat minds eh Matt?
DeleteLovely photos. I tried & tried this morning to take some photo's of the bees. Cosmos, borage & thankfully runner beans seem to be their favourite blooms here.
ReplyDeleteHave you a burst on your camera as this helps a lot, awpol - we have borage too see nest post.
DeleteHello again, Sue! Ah… I couldn’t agree more on helping the bees all we can. Still only odd small tortoiseshells and small whites spotted here. Brilliant photos, I love to catch bees and butterflies with my camera too – you’ll know that :-)
ReplyDeleteI've now seen lots of gatekeepers, and the odd tortoiseshell and peacock flitting round the buddleia, Shirl - at least the cooler weather means the buddleia flowers are lasting longer. Just can't resist taking more and more photos of bees and butterflies in spite of having zillions already - it's a disease we both suffer from isn't it OMP Obsessive Minibeast Photography
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