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MY FAVOURITE CARTOON AS A BOY..

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

WAXING MOON AND MINING BEE



After yesterday's shenanigans - lying on my back in a pool of muddy rat urine, shooting bumblebees infested with mites (does life GET more glamorous?), I thought I'd spend this afternoon chasing a teensy weensy Mining Bee around the garden - the first such bee I've seen this year.


Its only about 1cm (no longer) in length, and was trying to indulge in a spot of sunbathing, before the giant ogre disturbed its "me time".


I'm afraid I didn't manage to get a great shot (the photo will only be on BG - NOT flickr), but the photo WAS good enough to tentatively ID it as a solitary mining bee yes, an Andrena sp, (almost certainly), specifically Andrena haemorrhoa - (very probably), and a male Andrena Haemorrhoa, well yes... it has brown facial hair you see, not the silvery grey of the female.
Phew.

These mining bees are all solitary, all look quite similar, all are tiny, and all have the female burrow a small hole in the earth, where she lays her eggs and stocks the hole with food for her young.

Don't ask me what the male does.
No honestly. Don't. (I have no idea, apart from the obvious).

A.haemorrhoa is one of the FIRST mining bees to appear in the year - as early as March certainly - timing their arrival for the Blackthorn blossom...

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The other shot above is of the Waxing moon (leaving new, approaching full), which I took at ten to seven tonight.

I'm rather proud of this photo - as I had to hold the tripod steady in the blustery winds tonight to get it - FAR from ideal moon photography conditions.


This moon shot IS in the "New Warren". (see link at top LHS of "Blue Grey").

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