Bumblebees and wild daffodils

Today has been one of those rare days when there was nothing I absolutely had to do AND the sun was shining!

I decided to do my first beewalk of the season (a survey of bumblebees for the BBCT); this necessitates a slow walking pace with much stopping, looking and listening. Indeed listening if often most valuable - the hum of a bumblebee is unmistakable...

buff-tailed BB Queen

My listening took my eyes skywards today - the first willow catkins are out, and this is where all the bumblebees were. In some cases I counted more than 10 queens on these catkins, mostly buff tails which tend to be one of the earliest bees out.

The wild daffodils are all in full flower and the rain last year seems to have suited them; I have never seen so many lining the river on the way down to Speke's Mill Mouth.

















When you have a day off, or even the odd hour, you suddenly feel very tired...and so I lay on the grass on the meadow looking out to sea. Above a buzzard circled and below I could hear the waterfall and the waves. On the wind the sweet smell of gorse. And not a soul in site. Perfectly lovely!