Tuesday, 21 August 2012

The birds and a bee

I know we're still a bit short of bees, so when I found this one half-dead on our conservatory floor, I took it out into the sun and gave it some sugar:

DSC_4277 Large Earth Humble Bee (Bombus Terrestris)

According to this site, it's a Large Earth Humble Bee, or Bombus Terrestris.
DSC_4289 Large Earth Humble Bee (Bombus Terrestris)

After feeding, it preened itself and flew off - job done!

We went down to Rye Harbour Nature Reserve over the weekend to take a few photos from the bird hides there.

We saw a Great White Egret:
DSC_4326 Great White Egret

Some Curlew:
DSC_4309 Curlew in flight

DSC_4310 Curlew in flight

A female Wheatear - thanks for the comment that ID'd this for me, the RSPB bird ID website was showing the male one first, which looks quite different.
DSC_4318 Wheatear

DSC_4340 Wheatear

DSC_4348 Wheatear

DSC_4321 Wheatear

And finally, some cute ducklings (I think - no sign of the parent), who started off on their little island:
DSC_4294 Ducklings

Gradually made their way down to the water:
DSC_4295 Ducklings

Swam round the island:
DSC_4304 Ducklings

And then came out again on the other side:
DSC_4302 Ducklings

They did this several times, but didn't dare move to another island!

Mike

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm no expert but I think your mystery bird is a Wheatear. I seem to recall it gets it's name from old English for 'white-arse', or something like that.