It may be cold this week compared to last week when it was lovely and sunny, and more importantly warm, but there are still signs of Spring in the air. There are some bees flying about and some birds are building nests while other are sitting on eggs and some are already feeding their young with the early caterpillars and other insects. Last week found this lovely queen Buff-tailed Bumble Bee looking for a nesting site on the side of a dumper truck. A queen Bumble Bee when she comes out of hibernation will feed on pollen and nectar to build her strength up, then find a nesting site in the ground like a vole hole. Here she will lay eggs and provide the workers with pollen until the larvae is fully formed. The queen bumble bee will then wrap the larvae in a cocoon for them to develop into fully fledged worker bees. The worker bees then do all the work. Bumble bee colonies are small and vary between 50-400 depending upon the species.
Found a lovely Long-tailed Tit's nest in a Juniper bush. These are amazing nests as they are made of lichen and spiders webs. They are truly a magnificent work of construction. Besides being naturally camouflaged, the spiders webs allow the nest to expand with the chicks in. Our Blue Tit box has Blue Tits in again and they are feeding their young on early caterpillars and other insects which have come out of hibernation. They are becoming very busy little parents feeding the young. We usually have a few broods a year nesting in the box.
We may be in lock-down due to Covid-19 but if you have a project on that requires a survey such as a bird survey or nesting bird survey, there is still time to do it. It is also the time of year for carrying out newt surveys, so if you require a newt survey for a project, please let us know at KJ Ecology Ltd. Currently we are allowed to carry out certain surveys due to the time restraints but some surveys can be done later when hopefully the Covid-19 situation has finished. Take care of your selves....
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