A Mixed Bag and a Bug Box

This post actually dates from 10th May but didn't get published at the time.

Although the red mason bee has remained the dominant species in the garden and the odd queen bumblebee continues to turn up, some more varied species have started to appear too.

Honey bees have appeared on a couple of occasions and an unidentified hoverfly that potentially looks like a nomad bee but the differences are easy to spot.

Honey Bee

Hoverfly

Today was typical in that three of the four main species of white butterfly all appeared in a short space of time, enabling some of the differences between them to be studied.

Female Orange Tip

Green-veined White

Small White

Most interesting of these is the small white, in that it showed no sign of any grey or black edging around the forewing tip.  Male orange tips have started to settle occasionally but aren't hanging around.

Yesterday I had also noticed the first garden bumblebee lying conspicuously in the flower of a californian poppy with its long tongue sticking out and today one could be seen in close-up, albeit with its tongue in.

\Garden Bumblebee

I was also able to make progress with identifying the nomad bee that has been seen frequently over the last few weeks - by trapping one in a recently purchased bug box.  Subject to confirmation, I now think it's the Flavous Nomad Bee and not Gooden's as I previously assumed.  However it could also be Panzer's Nomad Bee.

Flavous Nomad Bee

The problem previously was that I could never get a good enough view or photo to decipher the red stripe at the top of the abdomen.

Lastly, on a bike ride that wasn't intended for nature spotting, I chanced to see an urban fox with a bird in its mouth near Derwenthaugh Staithes.  Then I had to stop at Willington Quay to investigate some loud squawking from a tree I rode under.  I suspected a ring-necked parakeet but in spite of the closeness, it wasn't visible.  And riding up the coast towards Seaton Sluice, we happened on the first wheatear I've seen this summer.