We’re now well beyond the solstice and into the season of summer, so this is coming a bit late. But here’s a quick look back at some of the things I found in the garden during spring this year. Just goes to show what a variety of life one small garden can contain!
7 Spot ladybird, coccinella septempunctata.
Common Carder bee on a Pulmonaria flower.
Bluebells flowers are starting to open.
Bluebells flowering in the garden.
Common crab spider sunning itself and waiting for something to eat.
One of the striking leaves of oxalis tetraphylla, these are where the common name of ‘Iron Cross’ comes from.
One the pretty pink flowers of the oxalis tetraphylla ‘Iron Cross’ plant.
Cowslip flowers in the afternoon sun.
Close up of a Forget-Me-Not flower.
Forget-me-not showing the different colours the flowers go through during their lifetime.
A male grass spider out in the sun.
A sunbathing female spotted wolf spider.
A male spotted wolf spider displaying to a female.
Despite looking like a wasp, this ferocious looking creature is a harmless (to us) nomad bee. Nomad bees are cleptoparasitic cuckoo bees and (like the cuckoo) lay their eggs in the nests other bees. In this case it’s mining bees, so there’s quite a number of these hanging around early mining bee nests in the garden.
Our most common species of earwig, forficula auricularia, hanging out in the undergrowth.
A bee fly (bombylius major) feeding on nectar from a pulmonaria flower.
A Cinnamon bug drinking sap from a dandelion flower bud.
A baby garden spider hanging out in its web.
Female spotted wolf spider, carrying her egg sac.
Love-in-a-mist flower backed by the white flowers of Snow in Summer.
To see all of my photos, take a look at my Flickr photostream.
Oliver Andrews Photography 