Common carder bee with it’s head deep inside a comfrey flower
1. Comprey is always a great bee plant, and it just keeps on flowering the whole season through which is a huge benefit for pollinators.
Carder bee on flowering kale
2. I always let my over-wintered kale flower as it is another valuable food source, not just for carder bumbles but also early bumblebees and white tailed bumblebees too.
Wasp of black currant
3. Wasps are predators of other insects but queen wasps emerging from hibernation seem to love my blackcurrant bushes. Each spring I see them feeding on the flowers, I suspect gathering nectar from the flowers.
Garden bumblebee on autumn olive tree
4. The autumn olive is proving really popular with the bees too. Yesterday I counted four different types of bees feeding on it as well as some small hoverflies.
Carder on Indian pea tree
5; Another carder (they are easier to photograph than other bees!) on the Indian pea tree.
Tulip
6. And finally a flower without a bee to complete my Six on Saturday .
I love the bee captures, how cool!! I also like the last one “flower without bee”. 🙂
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Thank you Amy – bees are one of my favourite things to photograph!
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Me, too. For some reason, we are not seeing bees as before…
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Bees had bad year last year here in Ireland (I take part of a citizen science programme that monitors them) – but thankfully we seem to be off to a good start this year. Four different types of bumblebee are currently visiting the garden and have seen some solitary bees too. Worldwide bees are in decline.
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This year I have left the dandelions in the flowers borders alone for the bees. Love your bee pictures.
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Ahh, thank you Cathy.
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Isn’t it just great to see all the new life! 😉
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It certainly is. My favourite time of year.
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Right, planting comfrey as soon as it can be done – love the picture of the carder bee with its head ‘hidden’. And could I grow an Autumn olive tree here? And, because of you, Chris now leaves the dandelions when mowing. Hooray!
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Yes I am sure you could grow the autumn olive – I don’t think it gets too big
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