Life in the Ivy Tree

You know you like a little bit of a teaser, so here's today's game: spot the wildlife in the Ivy... There is something in there, I promise.

Hopefully you found the Chiffchaff lurking in there. (If it eluded you, the answer is at the end of the blog).

Here he is out in the open, having a whale of a time among all the insects that are attracted now the Ivy is in flower.

Much of the insect life he isn't interested in, whether that be Honeybees, wasps or Red Admiral butterflies. He's more of a little fly lover.

But hopefully my Ivy is helping him build up his energy for his forthcoming flight down to southern Europe.

In order for Ivy to work its magic in this way, it needs to get its 'head' into the sunlight, because only then does it burst into so much flower.

So I thought you'd like to see how I've achieved that with the Ivy Tree that I've grown. Tree?! Ivy? Yup, here it is, 25 foot tall.

Ok, I own up, the skeleton inside the Ivy is the old trunk of a dead tree that I retained, rather than chopping it to the ground. And now it is the biggest mass of Ivy flower in the neighbourhood.

So to finish for today, I just wanted to show you something else which is visiting it:

This ginger-haired, stripy-bottomed beauty is the Ivy Bee. Smaller than a Honeybee, it is still a newcomer to this country, having only first arrived (under its own steam) in 2001.

So if you have Ivy in your garden that is flowering, and you get a bit of sunshine this weekend, have a look to see what is visiting yours. I guarantee you will find life in abundance.

Oh, and did you find the Chiffchaff? He's half hidden behind an Ivy flower, facing left, his little black eye and pale stripe above the eye poking out!