Blogger: Kim Matthews, Campaigns Intern
My best friend knows me so well. Gifts in recent years have included home-made hedgerow jam (yum!), tickets to see the Foo Fighters (woohoo!), a sponsored acre of eucalyptus forest in Australia to help koalas, a hedgehog box built by her own hands to Hedgehog Preservation Society standards and finally a bug box for my garden.
The bug box arrived on my birthday four or five years ago now and I put it up in the garden straight away, in eager anticipation of all the insects that would soon arrive and take up residence.
It has been a very long wait! Until last week that is, when I noticed something flying around near my water butts. Several somethings in fact. On closer inspection it turned out to be bees and they were busy exploring the bamboo tubes of my bug house, which was hung nearby. Some of the tubes were already sealed up with mud. Apparently they store pollen in there and then lay an egg on top!
So I am now the proud landlady of a colony of red mason bees. It’s so nice to see that nature has finally put its stamp of approval on one of my wildlife home offerings. Fingers crossed it will be the hedgehog box next!
You can join in and help stepping up for nature by visiting our shop online and finding all your own wildlife homes http://shopping.rspb.org.uk/c/Wildlife.htm