18 May Unlikely Connections
18 May
Unlikely Connections
Wildlife Gardening Tips in Italics
What do they have in common? Bee in Hi-Vis kit! (1)
and a May Buttercup meadow (2)?
Two fledgling Long-tailed Tits - ‘fluff balls’ - high up on a branch, (3)
and tiny spiders (4)?
Some might guess that one is the irresistible, ‘adorable’ garden visitor and the other the repugnant, even frightening and unwanted intruder to be annihilated. And add to that mix, small flies (5),
an extra spider with longer legs (6),
a lurid greenish crab spider with legs ready to grab (7),
then white fly (8)
and the horror reality show would be total!
But for the ‘fluff balls’ this creature show is a typical breakfast of multi nutritional delights. Add in some insect eggs and moth (9)
caterpillars and the meal is ideal with both moth larvae and insect eggs as key components for growing fledglings.
Wildlife Gardening Tips
They find all these, and the gardeners’ dreaded aphids (green), while foraging on ash and sycamore trees, and oak. Their chattering squeaking was the giveaway of their presence in our red-leafed Prunus (3). Two others were flitting nearby, and during the following few minutes they all darted up twigs and branches of the walnut, and our neighbour’s ash tree, delving and scooping fast at bark and leaves as they went.
Long-tails travel and forage in groups (very obvious as they travel through gardens in winter). These are family flocks and interestingly some of them are ‘helpers’ assisting with feeding the fledglings – these may be failed breeders. They also forage on hedges, brambles and garden shrubs as well as trees, while hedgerow blackthorn and hawthorn are used as safe shelter while waiting for parents.
The wildlife gardener can lend a helping hand by considering including these plants, and, most importantly, access to water, as in a shallow bird bath (regularly cleaned of course in the light of the current finch disease issue!)
And what of the Hi-Vis bee (1) and the meadow (2)? The bright yellow underbelly is yellow pollen, which the female Red Mason Bee uses to mould walls partitions in her chosen egg chamber tube. She lacks the pollen baskets on the legs of Honey and Bumble Bees; the pollen collects on the hairs on her underside. This is less efficient for her task of pollen collecting as it means more journeys... but more journeys means more visits to the flower, i.e. better chances of pollination, so it’s more efficient from the plant’s point of view.
Yellow pollens during May? Common daisies (10),
Buttercup yellow (11, 2)
and the last of the Forget-me-nots and Bugle (12)...
and even edging the pond - Lesser Spearwort (13),
just in flower now, when Marsh Marigold/Mollyblobs flowers are over and fattening with seeds. Choosing plants for wildlife timing as well as human delight is vital! And the buzzing lives of thriving wildlife is part of our delight.
The riddle of connections is that of animal needs and garden habitats – the female bee needs lots of pollen building material as well as food for her young, and available now, at the right time in her life cycle. The fledgling Long-tails need a wide variety of food, and in so doing they, like other insectivorous birds, act as natural pest controllers.
The ultimate links and vital connections depend on us...
Photo credits: Nicolette’s Wildlife Garden.
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