Autumn is almost here (part 2)

Some other creatures:

A Migrant Hawker Dragonfly that posed nicely for me.

A Green Bottle that I'm pleased with.

A couple of spiders.



A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee (could be a white tailed but this seems to have a bit of colour on the tail)

One evening I spotted loads of caterpillars on a young hornbeam. I identified them as Buff-tip moths. They stick together eating a leaf at a time until they are in the latest instar stage and then all split up. I counted about 50 and wondered how much damage they would do - as it happened quite a lot, but the tree still has a few leaves and buds getting ready for next year. The caterpillars have gone, some were spotted around the garden. They pupate over winter in the soil.

Here's a couple I caught shedding their skins. The hairs are probably irritating.

Bees

Along the north of the garden on the other side of the fence is a large privet hedge. The neighbour to the north wanted to cut it down from 15 feet because he was trying to grow fruit trees. He couldn't reach the eastern edge, and no one else is bothered, so it's a bit ragged, and flowers. And that attracts the bees. For a few days there were loads back in July all over it.

I think these two are Buff-Tailed Bumble Bees. The White-Tailed Bumble Bee is very similar, especially the workers.



Honey Bee.

I have some marigolds and one evening while checking the birch for sawfly larvae I noticed one had a dark centre. It took a while to realise that a bee was in there but it wasn't moving.

I poked it with a long pointy thing and it started to back out.

I had to keep poking it because it would just go back in again.

Eventually it made its way out but was very lethargic. It was almost as though it was drunk on nectar.

It hadn't had enough though and soon turned round and dived back in. It was still there the next morning but eventually left.