What have you seen

Wow, fabulous spot, a Eurasian Hornet. Fabulous insect rarely seen these days.👍

MiL mentioned that her father used to be the local "man to call" in the event of a bit of bee trouble. He used to go around with his bee suit and smoker and collect them. Ha da few hives of his own. He was a Head Gardener at a "House" so probably had experience of them.

We had a drive up to the Moors today and saw a Female Hen Harrier quartering a bit of land. Also a Red Kite high up on the Moors as well.

Bakers2   A Quotation, if I may, from my late Father { another Apiarist ! } but where he got it from you'll have to ask the bees 

A swarm of bees in May is worth a bale of hay

A swarm  of bees in June is worth a silver spoon

But a swarm of bees in July is not worth a butterfly.

All purely based on the value of  honey + the profit thereof  

 

P.S. / Edit  :--  Its always good to let the neighbours know that the pup was disturbed by strange folks around ~~ Might keep other residents on the look out  

Just had a visit from one of our local, big, crows, a rather clever one at that. He arrived in the garden with what looked like half a slice of bread in his beak. He warily looked around and then went up onto the bird bath and dunked the bread in the water until it was soft enough to eat more easily. 

This isn't the first time he's done this. We saw this behaviour on a few occasions last year. Presumably, probably, the same crow as he comes on his own so no other to demonstrate the tactic to. 

Painted lady butterfly on the moors between Marsett and Hawes. 
When they turn up, they do like this area, maybe 2021 will be a good year for them. 🤞

Had a pair of Ring Ouzels fly in front of us on Tuesday just after we had left the viewpoint outside Bort-les-Orgues not seen them for a few years and on the train trip yesterday a Honey Buzzard was flying low around a local wood, also plenty of unusual flowers which I had to look up so a good trip and plenty of photo stops.

Locally we've spotted a RedKite, flying close to the village. This might be a one off or they are gradually moving our way. They appear to extending their sw range generally.

Had a walk over the moors near Middleham today, lots of blue butterflies about, assume to be common blue. Some small heaths about, too.

On site, we always put a bird feeder up. Here, at Hawes Club site, I’ve had to refill it 3 times already, in 6 days. Just the usual suspects, of course, but plenty of them. 🙂

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Read a report in todays Daily Rag that the Painted Lady has earned the distinction of the longest known migration flight of any insect. They come from below the sub Sahara.

Would personally have thought the Monarch Butterfly might have had that record but I'll defer to the experts. Whichever, both are extraordinary feats of endurance for such small wildlife.