#30Days30 Drawing to a close

We are getting close to the end of the Wild Life Trusts' #30DaysWild. Having been out and about on Saturday, I was busy in the garden on Sunday and working at home on Monday.

Day 26 - Tiny things in the garden

Before starting work in the garden, I took a tour round, camera in hand.

Hedge Woundwort

Wool Carder Bee - gathering plant hairs for her nest.

The best thing I saw was a Wool Carder Bee gathering hairs from a Lambs Ears plant.  Last year I read a post about this species of bee, which mentioned that it harvested hair from this type of plant. A few days later, I saw the plant on sale and bought it. I put it in it next to the path so, if the bee turned up, it would be easy to photograph. The first time I saw a Wool Carder Bee was during this year's Garden BioBlitz.

The BWARs Information sheet for the Wool Carder Bee says that it:

• is one of the largest British solitary bees
• has one generation per year, which flies from June to August
• the male is larger than the female
• Nests are constructed in existing aerial cavities, such as beetle holes in dead wood in addition to artificial sites such as cut bamboo canes
• It uses the hairs that it collects to make brood cells.

I watched her collecting hair from the underside of a leaf into a ball. I saw her fly in the direction of our Camellia but then I lost her. This happened twice.

Crab spider, lying in wait.

Day 27 - Leaves from our trees

After a busy day working, I packed up my laptop and went outside just as the sun went in.

Leaves and immature fruits from our trees.

At first I was not really sure what to do for the day's #30DaysWild. Then I started looking at the shapes of the leaves on our trees. We have a wonderful variety of trees in the garden, some of which support a terrific variety of life.