4th June

A Reed Warbler is still settled in the reeds in the Magic Garden and singing vigorously. I finally managed to get a shot of it today. I was reasonably pleased with this given it was singing from deep in the reed bed and I could hardly pick it out even with binoculars…

Close by I saw around 15 of these cracking little Longhorn moths (Nemophora degeerella) in a strange slow- motion ‘dance’. Look at those antennae!

This is a new species for the parish and one that is not very common in this part of Yorkshire.

In my steep learning curve of insects I have also started looking at bumble bees so this is I think a Common Carder Bee…

And this a Garden Bumble Bee…

But then just to confuse things this apparent bumble bee is actually a bee-imitating hoverfly Volucella bombylans…

It has two forms, one like this that imitates White-tailed Bumblebee and another that imitates the orange tailed bees. Nature never fails to amaze!