Birds and Bee Flies

The trees have all dressed up in their best frocks and the birds are flirting and yelling at each other.

I sleep with the window open and each morning at this time of year the dawn chorus wakes me - the glade at the bottom of our long thin garden is a surburban haven for an assortment of great tits, blue tits, blackbirds, robins, starlings and dunnocks, and of course the ubiquitous and seemingly ever-expanding wood pigeons.  I don't mean the population of pigeons is expanding. The birds themselves appear to be getting steadily bigger each year - mini zeppelins constantly fussing, cooing and blustering around in the next door neighbours' conifers, high-wire necking and harrassing each other on the phone lines that criss cross our garden. 

A pair of dunnocks were indulging in an altogether more endearing bit of courtship this morning, all ruffled feathers and downy, coy glances.  It's always a delight to hear the bell-like peals of this understated bird - surely one of the most beautiful songs you can hear in the average back garden.

Within a couple of minutes of starting work in the garden there is always a signature rustle of wings and our local robin appears. I have realised that he believes this garden belongs to him, not me (and he's probably right, actually). He announces his presence with a chirruping warble - parking himself just above me, with no particular interest in the spoils of my weeding and hoeing.  I think he just wants me to know he's there, on his patch, and I'm very much just a temporary visitor. 

There will be much excitement in the next week as very own harbingers of summer, the swifts, will arrive. Last year it was May 10th, the year before May 3rd. Oxford Museum of Natural History, which has been studying these amazing birds since 1947, recorded swifts around its tower on April 25th this year. This is good news, as 2012 was a dreadful year for them,  and for the first time since the Oxford Swift Project began, they abandoned live young. The relentless rain meant there simply weren't enough flying insects around for them to eat. You can read all about the Oxford Swift Project here.

Our own swifts  - between 10 and 20, I would say, are a determined and noisy bunch. I guess determination is a necessary pre-requisite if you are to survive the long flight from Africa. This quality - one might even say it strays into ruthlessness - became evident a couple of years ago, when we were startled by a clamour of protest from a house sparrow which was nesting in the eves, only to find an aerial squatter had arrived with every intention of evicting the sitting tenants. I grabbed my camera and filmed the result  - the swift was victorious and the next day our son found the consequence of this little tragedy in the form of an injured (and soon to be dead) female sparrow lying under the shed.

I have been seeing a lot of bee-like things around this year. So have my friends up at Waterperry. But, they appear NOT to be bees at all, despite possessing many bee-ish qualities (good at hovering, a fondness for nectar, a nice line in fluffy outerwear). No, this is a Bee-Fly - Bombylius Major, which, according to the Natural History Museum's Identification and Advisory Service, lays its eggs inside the nests of solitary bees, wasps and beetles, so its larvae can eat the unfortunate offspring inside. There are no fewer than 9 species in the UK and you can read all about them here.

Bee Fly - Bombylius Major on my fig tree

As for real bees, it hardly needs to be repeated that they are having a hard time. Do your bit by planting bee friendly plants and eschewing the use of pesticides. Friends of the Earth have made 2013 the year of the bee - have a look at their 'Bee Cause' web pages with lots of ideas and bee-ish events to take part in. Do your bit - bees need our help! I'm off to get some borage seeds as apparently they are bee magnets. Happy gardening!

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