flowers – Page 3 – Bee in the Moment

The clear cold nights and frosty mornings have arrived. I don’t mind crisp starts to the day because eventually the sunshine appears.

As more trees become leafless I find other means of identifying them. I learnt two new trees last week; the first was a Strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) and the second was an American sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua). In both instances the first things I noticed on each was their fruit.
The unripe fruit of the Strawberry tree can be seen below alongside the delicate flowers. The common name, Strawberry tree, comes from the ripe red fruit which look similar to strawberries. The fruit of this evergreen tree will be eaten by birds. It seemed strange to see the fruit, from the pollination of last year’s flowers, appearing at the same time as this years flowers.

The American sweetgum tree also gives interest to gardens at this time of year. The leaves turn a rich mixture of yellow through to orange and red and even purple in autumn.

The spiky looking fruit dangle from the branches at the same time as the leaves turn and fall.

I have started noticing more Robins (Erithacus rubecula) hanging around lately; always eager to gobble up insects and worms that I unwittingly uncover as I work.

Moments after taking this photo another Robin swooped down and a fight over winter territory began.

It is fascinating to observe Robins, who can be relatively social towards humans, eagerly defend their patch of garden against other Robins. It is quite a contrast to the other bird which became more noticeable last week; Ring-necked parakeets (Psittacula krameri) flock together. I saw groups of this social parrot flying overhead throughout the week. They have been breeding in the area for a long time and I often see them but not usually every day.

I still notice the occasional bee and on Wednesday I saw a Buff-tailed (Bombus terrestris) bumblebee (the buff coloured tail enabled me to Identify it as a queen). I observed her walking amongst leaf litter. She could have been a new queen, going into hibernation before starting a nest next spring, or an old queen who will soon die.

More fungi are appearing as autumn continues to take hold.

*Once again, please do not use this post as a guide to edible mushrooms. I have managed to identify some but have placed question marks next to those I am unsure of.*

Those I saw last week are;

-The Bitter oyster (Panellus stipticus) fungus