Nature Chain Winsley

New life emerges > RiverFes The season of new life emerging and in the making! Fresh female Red Mason Bees have emerged from my bee hotels, mated and laid eggs provisioning them with food for next year’s newborns, closing off each ‘nursery’ with a neat door of pollen and mud In a  thicket by the river there are more eggs in waiting - five speckled blue eggs lie cradled in a carefully structured masterpiece of woven stems and dead strands Elsewhere, more eggs have hatched - the still of the water is rippled by a passing family of Canada Geese Between egg and adult, many types of insects pass through several stages: here  a Bush Cricket in miniature clambers laboriously over Veggiemesh. It is extremely miniature... Bush Crickets change form and shed hard outer skins 5-6 times before becoming adults. In another part of the garden, underneath a Hop leaf  an unknown inert creature, somewhere between caterpillar and dormant pupa, is hidden. It will soon emerge with win...

Pond> river intro Water is the stuff of life... vital to wildlife garden residents or creatures passing through. Be it a narrow ‘gutter’ channel (Photo 1) connected to a mini sink-sized trough or a garden pond (2) insects, birds and mammals can drink their fill. And then there is the incredible variety of life living on and below the surface - plants and animals. In hot weather we are all far too familiar with invasive threads of blanket weed (Spirogyra 1 ), more fancifully and romantically called ‘pond silk’ or ‘water silk’. Anyone who has tried to lift it out will confirm its fabric-like draping qualities! Tightly clothing a stone or cement edge, it wicks up water and holds it... this bee    is taking full advantage of this minimal garden water source. In a pond proper  Branched Bur-reed makes a good firm anchorage for another visiting insect to dip its tongue under. Water plants can benefit wildlife from all over the garden. Nectar and pollen awaits ins...

12 th May, 2025 Bee Soap! It’s OK... they don’t sting! They only push and shove, grab, grip and tumble, throw each other down and out, and take over the golden goal by brute force if necessary... no, not unruly humans... male Red Mason Bees, emerged from one of our bee hotels and waiting in anticipation for the golden goal. The wait is for the females to mature and emerge from their closed off nursery tubes. They have all been in there through the winter, since laid there as eggs, provisioned with food and a protective ‘door’. Photo 1 . They fly frantically up and down, buzzing back and forth in front of the tubes with females within - still behind closed doors. The rush and bustle is continuous, from the first moment of warming sun to sunset. All this flight and fight needs to be fuelled with a high-octane fuel – forget-me-nots seem to fit the bill and growing nearby don’t use up valuable energy to find If bees emerge in coolish weather, they need to warm up in the sun and orient...

  No Mow May “Where the bee sucks, there suck I: In a cowslip's bell I lie; There I couch when owls do cry. On the bat's back I do fly After summer merrily. Merrily, merrily shall I live now Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.” Ariel... “The Tempest” (Act V, Shakespeare) (266) This May the cowslips are spectacular, owls are calling during the crystal clear nights, bats have been seen flying over Winsley gardens, and hedges and garden plots are heavy with blossom hanging on the bough – apple, lilac, wisteria, Choisya... And quietly in the background (but less comfortable for sheltering Ariel) – holly With the Holly comes the reassuring sight of flight - the Holly Blue; butterflies that have been flying for a few weeks now. But what else is going on now, around your feet? Lots! Particularly if you walk the streets and lanes of our villages. Cultivated and wildflower seeds have been sown by volunteers along verges and in Winsley Playground (Photo page 18, May’s Winsley Weav...