Saturday 1 March 2014

March already

March always takes me by surprise. I realised today that the end of winter is within sight, and it hasn't really felt like a proper winter, as it has been very mild, with a scattering of frosts, although very windy and overcast. With the sun out today, a dronefly Eristalis tenax stirred up and alternatively visited the Laurustinus on the shade and sunbathed in the wall opposite. A pack of young wolf spiders enjoyed the sun too. I wandered around and realised the garden is ready for my favouring early spring invertebrate, Anthophora plumipes, the hairy footed flower bee. Males should be appearing by the end of this week, weather permitting. I photographed their favourite flowers at bee-eye view. I hope they don't make me wait too long.
Pardosa sp wolf spider sunbathing
White dead-nettle
Rosemary
Muscari
Narcissus tete-a-tete
Lungwort
Primroses

3 comments:

Guillermo García-Saúco said...

I just love your garden.

Adrian Thysse said...

Lovely spring flowers! Here in Alberta we are still a few weeks away, more snow tonight in fact!

Africa Gomez said...

Thank you Adrian, spring has sprung here, quite early due to the mild winter. The hairy footed flower bee appeared on the 8 of March and the females are also about now.