After the extended drought between February and March, the rains came in late May. And with the rains came regeneration. The Forest of viper’s bugloss (Echium vulgare) in early July attracted a flight of bumblebees, carder and honey bees.
We had only just planted the wildflower plugs when the Hummingbird hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatrum) appeared on the green roof. The fact that nothing was actually in flower did not put the hungry hawk-moth off. It went from plant to plant in search of nectar.
The Cassin’s Finch (Carpodacus cassinii) was beneath the veranda coming to feed on the spellings from the feeder above. First a male and then a female joined in. They gave me the best views of this subtlety beautiful finch. They are often seen high in the conifer forests or flying rapidly among the trees. But [...]
Ed, one of my co-author’s of ‘Small scale green roofs – low tech solutions for green living’ has been sending me pictures of roof top pollinators and him signing books in Pennsylvania. I for my part did my first book signing far from home at the Denver Botanical Garden’s as part of the GROW conference, [...]
A brief visit to Evershed’s, one my favourite green roofs, in the eye of St. Paul’s London, discovered a swarm of honey bees in a bush by the vegetable garden. The pulsating mass was relatively calm, though as I approach they did start inspect my shirt a little to closely.
Yesterday’s post on bumblebees on a Paris green roof had only photographs of the feeding bees. I knocked up a video yesterday. What was also interesting yesterday was the publication of research that shows wild bees are more important for pollination that Honey bees.
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