Bees active

With the weather cooler than a typical April, some of the early pollinators have been subdued. There are some moths and a few butterflies (Small Tortoiseshell) but you are most likely to see bees — they will be flying even on a cool, overcast morning, whereas the butterflies greately prefer warm midday sunshine.

Here's a fairly common bee — Bombus lucorum (the White-tailed Bumblebee). It's feeding on the white flowers of Pulmonaria (a member of the Boraginaceae family) in a garden on the road. This bee visits a wide range of flowers. The queens emerge in February; the workers don't appear till the summer.