One of my favourite catchphrases from classic Saturday afternoon '80s TV show, and the more recent big screen film, "The A Team" was Hannibal's "I love it when a plan comes together". As I stood in my garden at the weekend staring at the above scene, I found myself uttering the very same phrase. Here's why.
I went to great lengths a couple of summers ago to try to turn a negative into a positive by securing as many sections of the willows that had been cut down near the River Ouse at my gym as possible. Rather than going into a skip, they were coming home with me to provide a home for wildlife. Dead and rotting wood is scarcer in my garden than I'd have liked so I used a few sections in shady areas for this purpose, but the big ones above, were ripe for solitary bee homes.
I've drilled different sizes of hole in the hope of attracting different species (image cMark Ward)
I charged up my power drill and spent a good couple of hours or so drilling holes into the sections of three different sizes. I tried to clear as much sawdust out of the holes as I could as I've heard that can put bees off a little - true or not, I'm not sure. Anyway, last summer, despite arranging my hotels into a reasonably artistic shape against the south-facing fence (where they also did a good job of covering up my neighbours distorted and rotting fence from the horrible Leylandiis growing behind it!). sadly, not a sniff of anything solitary bee-like came.
That all changed on Sunday when, recently back from holiday in the US, I spotted not one but three small bees hovering at the hotel. Not just that, they were inspecting pretty much each and every hole with great care and attention. Hooray!
Even better was the fact that the three bees were three different species! There was a red mason bee, quite an easy one to ID, plus a mining bee that I'll need to work on (there are a lot of species) and also a nomad bee which is a cuckoo, laying its eggs in the nests of Andrenas (mining bees). i did think, "Give them a chance to get started!" but what a result. Nomad bees are beautiful and one of my favourite groups.
The well-named wasp-beetle is about now - I photographed this one at The Lodge yesterday
Having been away, I've missed my usual first dates for lots of species so i'm still seeing things for the first time this spring that I'd normally have seen in the third week of April. This little beauty above caught my eye in the main border of the garden here at the Lodge yesterday lunchtime - it's the longhorn beetle known as the wasp beetle. Cracker!
If you fancy making, or even buying, a bee B&B, check out the RSPB website