{"id":15115,"date":"2026-05-10T19:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T18:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marfell.me.uk\/wordpress\/?p=15115"},"modified":"2026-05-10T19:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T18:40:12","slug":"ants-bees-beetles-birds-butterflies-and-cannabis-on-baildon-bank-24-april-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marfell.me.uk\/wordpress\/ants-bees-beetles-birds-butterflies-and-cannabis-on-baildon-bank-24-april-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Ants, Bees, Beetles, Birds, Butterflies and Cannabis on Baildon Bank. 24 April 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A few photos from a walk with my camera along Baildon Bank. I was keeping my eyes and ears open for Green Woodpecker – heard but not seen. But I was also looking for the solitary mining bees that nest on the edges of the paths. I therefore had my long lens and macro lens plus flash. I wonder how much these humanoid robots will be? I could do with one to carry some of this stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The header image is of a Nomad Bee, poss Lathbury’s Nomad Bee, checking out the home of a Mining Bee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As usual you can tap\/touch\/click on an image to see it in better quality in the carousel gallery with an i<\/em> for more information. And if you like what you see please click on one or more of the Share <\/em>buttons at the bottom.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Little Things<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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First up here is Horvathiolus superbus. I have posted photos of these before and also mentioned this:-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This species is widespread in the Channel Islands but was not found on the British mainland until 2019, when a colony was discovered at a site in west Yorkshire. This population was presumably the result of horticultural introduction and was associated with Common Foxglove Digitalis purpurea.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Was the West Yorkshire site Baildon Bank??<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of the colouring of some of these photos you definitely need to view them in the carousel gallery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next up is the Ashy Mining bee and the Nomad bee that wants to lay its eggs in the Mining bee’s nest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We then have a Red Mason Bee that is about to check out a hole under one of the rocks that make the clamber up the bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other bees and Ants were in the same area. It was a South facing slope that gets a reasonable amount of sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The one that doesn’t quite fit with the Bees, Beetles, and Bee-fly is the Green Longhorn Moth. Lots of them were flying around the Oak trees. It’s not a great photo but the light just catches the horns<\/em> of the moth to make it interesting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Birds and Butterflies<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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I could hear Blackcaps in several places and it was great to get decent sightings of what seemed to be a pair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Jay looked as though it was trying to cool itself with its beak open, but then it was also basking in the sun, trying to get warm.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Cannabis<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Soon after getting on to Baildon Bank I spotted several pieces of card that turned out to be the packaging for genetically modified Cannabis seeds. According to the blurb on the packet they were for collection only and germination was prohibited. Yeah, right!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another unusual thing (I have not seen Cannabis seed wrappers before) was two rungs of a ladder stuck up in a tree.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Track<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The squiggles show where I wandered taking the photos. You can move around the map by dragging, you can also zoom in or out, or make the map full screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n