Garden 13th June 2011

I haven't been up to much recently as the weather hasn't been the best on my days off. I did go to Highgate Common again today to do some more volunteer work, but bracken clearing doesn't really mix that well with photography. We did see a longhorn beetle (Agapanthia villosoviridescens) which was a nice find, there was also a family of Common Whitethroats flitting around the heather, some Tree Pipits were doing their parachuting display flight and we saw a sand digger wasp.


I managed to get out in the garden yesterday and take a few photos. The light wasn't good but I did capture some resonable images of two species - Arge pagana a Rose sawfly and Bombus hypnorum, the Tree bumblebee.

The Tree bumblebee is a newcomer to these shores, having arrived from off the Continent in 2001.  It has since quickly spread north. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust is interesting in mapping its progress across the UK, so if you see it you can report it to them here: http://www.bumblebeeconservation.org.uk/tree_bee.htm

It is easy to identify as it is the only species of bumblebee in the UK with a brown/ginger thorax, black abdomen and white tail. However, the individual I found was rather dark. 


John