Weekend Antics

Wow it was a lovely weekend and very busy too! Mummy came home early on Friday so that she could do some work in the garden (she didn't get much done mind you - I watched her sitting reading on her Kobo and getting distracted by the Blue Tits). I told mummy about Doris's new friend, and so she went to have a look. The hutch has some panelling on the top to increase insulation (so a couple of layers of wood rather than just one, and they overlap with the seams to prevent the wind just howling through). Into the gap in the middle of the front a little bee kept going in and out. When mummy had a closer look, she noticed it was a leaf cutter bee! We didn't manage to get a photo of the bee, but I found one on google:
Megachile centuncularis (f)from here.

This one looks to be less tawny than the one that has built a nest in the plant pot on the balcony, but we didn't get a good look at the other one, as mummy nearly drowned it and had to frantically release it from the pot! We do have a photo of the leave in the pot though:


On Saturday there was a butterfly walk with the Gwent wildlife trust. There were lots of butterflies about as the weather was perfect. There were several whites of the three main 'cabbage' species, a small copper, many meadow browns and gatekeepers, at least one Peacock, an Essex Skipper, a Common Blue and a Silver-y Moth. There were also some very large grasshoppers and a weird fly that looked like a moth but must have been a fly as it bit my mummy's neck when they were trying to get a good look at it!

Gatekeeper
Oh - on that note - I feel it is important to let you all know that it is the Big Butterfly Count starts on the 20th, which is this coming Friday, so get out and about, sit quietly for 15 mins and count the butterflies that you see. The important thing to remember is to only count the number in your field of veiw at any one time, so that you are not counting the same individual more than once. If you google Big Butterfly Count you can get an ID checklist and more information about submitting your results. There is also an APP!

So yesterday involved a walk out to the Newport Wetlands. GavGav was not overly happy as he does not like the sunshine, however he did manage to convince mummy to get a new helmet for the motorbike, which means she will have to go out on it more often now - so really he can't complain too much. Anyway, there were lots of Dragonflies and Damselflies. Unfortunately the Dragonflies were out in the middle of the water most of the time and mummy got frustrated as she couldn't see them well enough to ID them. However, she did get a couple of photos of Damselflies in tandem:
Common Blue Damselfly
White-legged Damselfly
And there are a couple of Dragonflies:
Juvenile Ruddy Darter
And this one which is probably a Ruddy Darter also:
I then got to play out with my GavGav, although he decided to fall asleep!

Right speaking of sleep, it is my bed time - hope you enjoyed this post.

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