What's buzzing or flying near you 2025 ?

Parasitic wasp on the daisies, and my last few celandines are attracting a load of little brown beetles.

 

Hi all last year bluetits nested in the box on my fence but sadly the chics ( only three of them ) died after a week or so and I suspect it was lack of good food ie caterpillars .
Currently bluetits are nesting in it again and it looks like the eggs hatched yesterday so I put a feeder up with live mealworms and waxworms hoping to help them out.
However up to now the bluetits haven't shown any interest or haven't found them but the local magpie has and his presence in the garden seems to agitat the bluetits so do you think I should take it down again .

 

Working in the garden this morning had a chiffchaff singing and looking down on me. Lovely. Saw holly blue, orange tip, speckled woods, peacock and small white butterflies. Not so many bees around though.

 

Hobby over Weymouth, three had just arrived from West Africa and gorging themselves on dragonflies.

 

That's a youngster being fed @Escarpment.

It's late for Bluetits to rear youngsters now @Dropmore, so I'd be inclined to remove the feeder to give them a better chance. If the parents are agitated they might desert the nest.

 

It's not a youngster; they don't have a red breast. The youngsters are all stripey and mottled. Courtship feeding is well known behaviour amongst many bird species.

 

Well today watched a female blackbird collecting nesting material from around our "lawn". She then flew off with a mouthful and came back many times to repeat the process. Is this for a 2nd brood or is just late in starting this year?

 

They have several broods a year. The blackbird collecting mud that I reported earlier in this thread was already feeding a fledged youngster.

 

I was looking at what seemed to be a slight yellow gape around it's beak @Escarpment suggesting an older youngster?

 

There wouldn't be any old enough to have a red breast at this time of year. It doesn't start coming in until late summer when they are 2 or 3 months old and no longer being fed. I haven't seen any robin fledglings yet, though I have seen dunnock and blackbird ones.

The Life of Baby Robins: From Hatchlings to Fledglings | Birdfact

 

There's so much cover here we rarely see fledgelings on the ground being fed but do see parents flitting in and out of shrubs and young uns trying to master the hanging feeders which is entertaining - tree and hedge sparrows, assorted tits and greater spotted woodpeckers.

Loads of bird song all day at themo, not just the dawn chorus and, just now, a whistle and a trill and an alarm I didn't recognise so I turned on my Merlin app. Common nightingale! Thrilled with that as I haven't ever seen one tho they were very tuneful during the nights of our first summer here but went silent for a few years. So pleased they're still around but not sure why it's singing mid afternoon.

 

We used to visit a supermarket on the edge of Carcassonne which had the main railway line next to it. We could hear the nightingales singing their hearts out over all the noise of people, traffic and trains and all during the daytime.

 

Went for a walk at a nature reserve this morning. Splendid view of a pair of marsh harriers with the male being very white. A pair of cranes in the distant and then walking back looked up and saw our first cuckoo flying. Brilliant. The reed warblers were all over the place but no sound/sightings of sedge warblers.

 

Yesterday I noticed a bird of prey sitting on the lawn not far from the house. Yes it had a bird in its feet, which was still flapping a bit. Then it started pulling the feathers out. Couldn't watch so I tapped on the window, but it carried on. Then I moved to another window nearer and off it flew. I think the poor little bird was one of our two dunnocks. In fact I think both have gone. They were always bobbing around under our bushes. I miss my dunnocks. I think the bird of prey was a sparrowhawk as it was quite blue on its back.