09 April 2010

Comma in the Garden

A Comma Polygonia c-album graced the garden with its presence today. They often fly staight through, but luckily today it stopped to have a feed on Lesser Celandine Ranunculus ficaria. This grows in our garden and is a good example of why not having the best kept lawn in the street, pays in the end! A Peacock Inachis io also passed through today.
Lots of bumblebees flying around the last few days and this White-tailed bumblebee Bombus lucorum was a nice change from all the Buff-tailed Bumblebees Bombus terrestris, that I've been seeing everywhere recently.

2 comments:

Barry Stewart said...

Nice one Mark. Saw my first lucorum yesterday along with 1 lapidarius and about 6 terrestris on a single catkin-covered willow just west of Gowerton.

Mark Hipkin said...

Thanks Barry, I had a small bumblebee this evening at Pent-y-sais while looking for a Sedge. All black/dark except for a red tail. By far the smallest bumblebee I've seen this year, at one point it got caught in a small spiders web. My pics were rubbish so nothing to show. The books show B.ruderarius might be a contender, but it is uncommon? I'll be Sedge hunting again tomorrow so may try and catch it, if it's still around. It was along the gravel road next to the railway line that crosses the canal, north side.