Day 10 (yesterday) in our garden mainly features photos from the front garden, just under the window. But I will start with some from the back garden. The header image is something that most of us have in our gardens unless you are mad keen and thorough; Dandelions. This one was in one of the vegetable beds, it isn’t any more.

We also have lots of Forget Me Nots in the vegetable plot but I am in the process of moving them, and the Fox Gloves, to a side bed and to the front garden.


Bee Hoverflies were making the most of the Forget Me Nots. The second image makes me think of the aliens in War of the Worlds.



Round at the front of the garden I noticed Tawny Mining Bees again (already mentioned in Day 9) and watched one fly around a little. After looking near where it was I started to notice lots of nest hole for them. In a couple of them you could just make out the Bee a centimetre or so below the entrance.



I also spotted a much thinner Bee or Wasp near one of the holes. It then stood near the entrance with its antenna waving over it. After a while it turned and backed down the hole part way. Was it laying eggs that would then hatch and feed on the pollen store of the Mining Bee? Is this Nomada flava? If anyone can ID the Bee/Wasp it would be great.
Edit: This is a Cuckoo Bee of the Nomada species. These are cleptoparasitic, they do not collect their own pollen. They are likely to be Nomada flava Panzer or Nomada panzeri Lepeletier. One is more common in the South and the other way round for the North. I don’t know where West Yorkshire fits in that.
This is the index to the Days in our garden series.
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